Boris Johnson clashed with Succession actor Brian Cox over Donald Trump in what has been branded a “highlight” of Channel 4’s US election coverage.
Both Johnson and Cox were two of the rotating guests featured as part of the live broadcast, which tracked the voting stats that will ultimately reveal whether Republican Trump or his Democratic rival Kamala Harris will be the next president.
Johnson, who repeatedly plugged his new book, defended Trump from Cox’s claims that he is a “monster”. As Johnson spoke, an unimpressed Cox could be seen glaring at the UK prime minister, with screenshots of the moment going viral on social media.
Cox, who played Logan Roy in the hit HBO series, made his disdain for Trump known during his virtual appearance, during which he said: “We have to make sure that he doesn’t get in because he is a monster, he really is. He’s crazy, he’s insane, he wants to be a dictator.
“I think he’s lost it, quite frankly. I think he’s deeply mentally unstable and I think he has been for some time. This is not a man who should be the president of the United States, absolutely not. He’s unreliable, he’s a convicted felon, I’m horrified.”
His comments arrived after Johnson explained that he did not think fears about Trump becoming president, including that he would “give away” Ukraine to Russia, were accurate.
In response, Cox said: “It’s ridiculous – of course he will. He’ll do what suits him. He’ll do what suits Donald Trump. The man is completely self-serving. He is totally self-serving. He is only interested in one thing, and that’s Donald Trump.
“He doesn’t give a damn about America, he really doesn’t.”
Johnson said he disagreed with Cox regarding Trump’s response to the Ukraine-Russia war if he was elected president.
“I think he will come to it and he will see that if he surrenders, if he allows [Vladimir] Putin to win – for his pride, for his ego – it’s a disaster for America, it’s a disaster for the world,” Johnson said.
“You can say that I’m wrong and I’m starry-eyed, and it’s not going to work out like that, and he’ll find a way of surrendering to Putin that somehow protects his reputation, his legacy. I don’t see how you do that – it’s a pretty unpolishable turd to be frank.”
Cox retorted: “I don’t buy it. I don’t buy any of it.”
Viewers couldn’t get enough of the showdown. “Brian Cox is making absolutely no attempt to conceal his contempt for Boris Johnson on C4,” one person wrote, with another adding: “Oh my god I LOVED Brian Cox (the actor) on Channel 4’s election coverage. The CONTEMPT on his face when Boris was talking!”
An additional viewer said: “Brian Cox’s face paints a thousand words as Boris Johnson speaks.”
Johnson later said that, as a British Conservative politician, he did not agree with Trump’s position on female reproductive health, gun control and tariffs.
“I’m not here to stick up for any particular presidential candidate, the 60-year-old said.
He continued: “I think when you look at what Donald Trump actually did in office on the foreign policy front, which is what obviously I care about primarily as the former UK prime minister – from the Abraham accords to Ukraine to Iran – you can make a very strong case that he brought peace and relative stability and I think that’s a very, very important consideration.”
Cox concluded by saying that he would never play Trump in a film or TV series because “it’s a terribly bad part, nobody would want to play Donald Trump because it’s such a terrible role… how do you find any redeeming feature in the human being”. Sebastian Stan recently played Trump in controversial new film The Apprentice, which the politician attempted to block from being released.
Additional reporting by Agencies
