Obama: Boris Johnson's comment over race makes him 'British version of Trump'

Barack Obama reportedly called Boris Johnson the British version of Donald Trump for referring to his “part-Kenyan ancestry” during the EU referendum campaign.

The former US President is said to have been annoyed by the “racially-tinged” comment made by Mr Johnson, according to his deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes.

Speaking to The Times Red Box podcast, he described the comment as “right at that line” of racist.

The comment came after Mr Johnson suggested that President Obama had removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office because of his race.

Ahead of a visit by Obama to Britain in April 2016 as a favour to David Cameron ahead of the Brexit vote, Mr Johnson claimed in The Sun that the president’s decision to replace the bust with one of Martin Luther King was a “symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British Empire of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender”.

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Mr Rhodes said the comment had left the President furious. He told The Times: “He felt like he had been a good friend to the UK . . . so it really did grate on him. It was right at that line.

“At a minimum it was racially-tinged, because he had Kenyan ancestry he must hate the British. My joke was they were more subtle back home with their racial dog whistles.”

After reading the article President Obama reportedly said: “He is their Trump,” to which Mr Rhodes is said to have responded: “With better hair.”