When Boris Johnson kicked off the Vote Leave campaign on May 11, 2016, one Remain supporter remarked darkly: “I just fear that one day we’ll have Boris as Prime Minister and Donald Trump as President. It doesn’t bear thinking about.”
At the time it sounded unimaginable, a particularly pessimistic prediction.
Trump was trailing Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the White House race and Johnson was a comedy figure and backbench MP who, deep down, expected the Out campaign to lose the Brexit referendum.
But this morning, at the G7 summit in south-west France, these two men came face to face for the first time as leaders of their countries.
The much-anticipated bromance – the pair had whispered sweet nothing to each other in a series of phone calls in recent weeks - burst into the open on the Bay of Biscay.
Their personal rapport was as warm as expected – two alpha males bonding over veal sausages and scrambled eggs, interrupting each other and finishing each other's sentences like childhood sweethearts.
The contrast with Theresa May could not have been more stark: where she was timid, shy and reserved, her successor is bold, brash and boastful – just like Trump.
Johnson and the President have much in common: crazy hair, giant egos and a craving to be loved.
But the fact they have similar personalities and indulge in changing room banter is not necessarily beneficial for Britain.
We saw with the 2003 Iraq invasion what happens when a UK PM becomes too close to an American President.
And it is not talking down Britain to point out the UK can now only ever be a junior partner in this relationship – no matter how much bluster Johnson injects.
