WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The similarities between the United Kingdom’s popular referendum to leave the European Union, called Brexit, and the populist US presidential campaign of Donald Trump have been largely overstated, libertarian policy experts said at a Heritage Foundation forum on Wednesday.
"The parallels, I think, may have been overdone between Trump and Brexit," director of the British-based Freedom Association, Rory Broomfield, said.
On Wednesday evening, one of the most vocal supporters of Brexit, UKIP’s Nigel Farage, is scheduled to address a Trump campaign rally in the southern US state of Mississippi.
The Brexit referendum and Trump campaign have been compared as both increased in popularity through appeals to nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric.
Marian Tupy, senior policy analyst at the Cato Institute in Washington, commented that the comparison of the two campaigns falls apart when it comes to the issue of free trade.
"The entire political establishment in Great Britain, with the possible exception of the far left, has embraced free trade as the future of the United Kingdom," Tupy said.
Both Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have strongly opposed free trade. "That is the fundamental difference that makes the election in the United States, I would say, more dangerous," Tupy added.
In July, most major UK national polls predicted the camp in favor of leaving the European Union would be defeated. In the end, 72 percent of UK voters turned out and proved the pollsters wrong. Donald Trump, who is currently behind in most major US election polls, has referred to himself as "Mr. Brexit."
