Diplomatic clash between the US and the UK. Previously, the American president Barack Obama had expressed a civil position regarding the Brexit issue, focusing his attention in particular on the issue of the fight against terrorism: "London in the EU is more effective against terrorism", said the starred head of state and stripes. Then, in the rush to answer him with a hard face, came the gaffe of one of the biggest supporters of a United Kingdom outside Europe, the mayor of London Boris Johnson: “Obama is half Kenyan”, he said, alluding to the fact that the president – who is also a guest in England these days, for Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday – might have feelings that are not in harmony with those of the British people.
In an article in The Sun Johnson also dusted off an old story according to which Obama, as soon as he set foot in the White House, returned the bust of Winston Churchill at the British Embassy in Washington. "No one knew for sure whether the president was personally involved in the decision - writes the mayor of the City - some said it was a snub to Great Britain, others that it was the symbol of the ancestral antipathy of the partly Kenyan president for the British empire , of which Churchill was a fervent defender. Finally, others said that Churchill was considered old-fashioned and out of fashion”.
The removal of the Churchill bust has actually been largely denied by Obama's staff. In 2012 Dan Pfeiffer, collaborator of the president, in the blog of the White House had dismissed it as "100% false: the bust is still in the White House, in the residence, just outside the Treaty Room".
Meanwhile, while a Downing Street spokesman hastens to brand the episode quoted by Johnson as "false", the Labor Party distances itself from the mayor, calling his words "offensive and racist". For the black deputy Chuka Umunna, Johnson's comments exceed all limits and are worthy of Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the White House who has repeatedly attacked Obama precisely on his origins. Johnson instead finds an ally in the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, according to which the alleged removal of the bust took place on Obama's first day in the White House, which "because of his grandfather, Kenya and colonialism has a bit of a grudge against this country".
