He’s a narcissistic serial philanderer with larger-than-life hair who was born in New York. He lies routinely and has encouraged political violence. He makes racist statements, basks in the media attention from his outlandish statements and unapologetically follows self-interest rather than principle. Now he’s about to become one of the most powerful men in the world.

No, this isn’t America in November 2016. I speak of Britain in July 2019.

Boris Johnson is the odds-on favorite to become Britain’s next prime minister on July 24, when a new leader is slated to take over from Prime Minister Theresa May. Johnson is currently in a two-man battle (against British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt) for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

There are, of course, plenty of differences between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. But their biggest hidden similarity — the one nobody is talking about — is how their paths to power were paved by a conservative political party that decided to become a vehicle for xenophobic nationalism, co-opting bigots and lunatics rather than denouncing them.