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Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson poses with a copy of the UM student newspaper The Miami Hurricane as he joins the University of Miami as a provost’s visiting lecturer and distinguished arts & sciences scholar on April 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
Pedro Portal<\/p>\n
pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
While former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson can wax poetic about the dangers of unchecked populism and hail the virtues of a city filled with billionaires, he has nothing to say about Florida politics \u2014 even while meeting this week with Gov. Ron DeSantis and billionaire Republican donor Ken Griffin.<\/p>\n
According to the eccentric, white-haired political figure, his primary reference points for Miami before this year were the movie Scarface and a 1989 Carl Hiaasen novel about a rogue plastic surgeon. The reality during his four weeks in town this spring has been \u201cwonderful,\u201d but \u201cthey\u2019re working me hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson has been traveling to South Florida for a week each month this semester as a visiting lecturer and co-teacher in a University of Miami political science class. His designation was largely funded by a gift from Griffin.<\/p>\n
In a nearly hour-long conversation and walk across campus with the Miami Herald, Johnson said his time in Miami \u2014 which has become a hub of Trump world \u2014 was focused on teaching, not politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been pretty much enjoying myself as a kind of pseudo academic and I\u2019ve just loved it,\u201d Johnson said, sporting a disheveled Herm\u00e8s tie while stopping for a selfie with a student.<\/p>\n
![\"Student](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_109Borisjohnson00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_109Borisjohnson00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Student Fabio Luengo takes a selfie with former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on April 22, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
But the image of the jovial professor, divorced from the messiness of the politics of the day after his own resignation in a COVID-era scandal in 2022, didn\u2019t quite square with the reality of his time in Miami.<\/p>\n
He said that during his four week-long visits to Miami throughout the spring, he never made it up to Mar-a-Lago nor Trump National Doral. When asked if he\u2019d met with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kusher, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Susie Wiles or anyone else in the Trump world, Johnson said, \u201cNo, don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, he has communicated with Trump in recent weeks, telling the Herald he\u2019s talked with the president about how he would have handled Iran differently, but thinks Europe should be backing the U.S. anyway.<\/p>\n
As to whether there was any politicking in town that he\u2019d acknowledge, Johnson hedged only slightly. \u201cNo, no, no, no,\u201d he said. \u201cHardly at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a chance I\u2019ll see him later on,\u201d he hinted when asked about DeSantis.<\/p>\n
![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_103Borisjohnson00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_103Borisjohnson00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Boris Johnson sits down for an interview with the Miami Herald about his tenure at the University of Miami as a guest lecturer and U.S. politics. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s office later confirmed to the Herald that Johnson, DeSantis and Griffin met for dinner that night. It was an unadvertised, out-of-the way trip for a governor who held press conferences in Jacksonville Wednesday afternoon and outside of Orlando Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Griffin still has not backed a Republican candidate in Florida\u2019s gubernatorial race, despite DeSantis lobbying him last fall to fund a challenger against frontrunner Byron Donalds, according to reporting by NBC News<\/a>. The billionaire\u2019s absence from the high-profile race has left open questions about a late-cycle entrant garnering his support.<\/p>\n On Thursday night, Johnson gave a fireside chat for the Miami-Dade GOP. While some VIP tickets were for sale, and included books, party Chairman Kevin Cooper said the event mostly \u201cbroke even,\u201d and was not a fundraiser.<\/p>\n Cooper presented Johnson with an award donned with a metal eagle the party called the \u201cInternational Guardian of Conservatism Award,\u201d which Johnson waved about saying he\u2019d use it to bring down any potential intruder into his home.<\/p>\n In many ways, Johnson\u2019s description of his four weeklong visits to Miami this spring sounded more like Europe than South Florida.<\/p>\n For one, he stayed at Mr. C\u2019s in Coconut Grove \u2014 a hotel inspired by an Italian joint known for hosting the \u201cwho\u2019s who of European royalty,\u201d according to their website. The best meal he had in town was at Rosemary\u2019s in Wynwood, an Italian restaurant owned by his wife\u2019s cousin, Johnson said.<\/p>\n Throughout his four weeks, he didn\u2019t make it to a single Cuban restaurant.<\/p>\n His level of knowledge about Florida politics \u2014 at least, what he was willing to share with a reporter \u2014 extended about as far as his knowledge of Miami cuisine. Johnson said he\u2019d never heard of Florida\u2019s leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Donalds or Attorney General James Uthmeier.<\/p>\n He was willing to weigh in, however, on U.S.-Cuba policy.<\/p>\n \u201cI hesitate to advise the United States on this matter. I think the world is generally better when the U.S. is out there trying to make it a better place,\u201d he said. \u201cThe difficulty about military regime change is you\u2019ve got to be pretty sure what\u2019s going to happen next.\u201d<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the only time he offered a measured response about Donald Trump\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n On whether Trump campaigned on anti-immigrant sentiments and the impacts of his mass deportation campaign, Johnson said, \u201cI\u2019m not really close enough to the detail of his campaigns to give a really informed comment on that and I really wouldn\u2019t want to stereotype somebody else\u2019s campaigns in another friendly country.\u201d<\/p>\n On Iran, Johnson said he would not have made the same decisions as Trump, but that Europe should back the U.S. anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily agree with everything that the president does, as he knows because we\u2019ve talked about it, but I think no one could deny that he\u2019s trying to \u2014 this thing in Iran, it\u2019s very far from straightforward right now, to put it mildly. But you got to ask yourself, do you want America wimping out?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His visit to the private Coral Gables university comes during the wave of conservative takeover of higher education in Florida \u2014 from the state takeover of a public liberal arts college it deemed too progressive, restrictions on how teachers discuss race on campus and the establishment of classical centers on campuses.<\/p>\n When asked about whether he saw his lecture series as part and parcel to that project, Johnson noted the lack of protests against him.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has not been much argy-bargy,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIn my own student days, they were ferocious. Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and the students would turn out screaming if a Tory minister turned up, they\u2019d disappear under a hail of eggs and God knows what.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Grad](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_110Borisjohnson00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_110Borisjohnson00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Grad student Sam Sachs (left) shares a Matcha Bike drink with former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the University of Miami\u2019s Coral Gables campus on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n