Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said during a brief congressional trip to London last week that the level of support for the referendum on Britain's exit from the European Union was palpable.
"It just seemed like it had more energy, and that was the case," Chaffetz said Friday after UK voters sent shock waves around the world by choosing to break away from the rest of Europe.
"I think people are getting fed up being overrun. They're proud of their history and their culture. They want to make their own decisions rather than some master government in some other country," he said.
The same energy he witnessed during a visit to review U.S. embassy security in London is also behind the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump's success, Chaffetz told the Deseret News.
"I think you see similar factors in the United States. People want to be able to be in control of their own destiny. People are saying loud and clear, 'Hey, we don't like the direction we're going,'" he said.
In the presidential election, the congressman said the Democratic presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, "represents the past. Donald Trump represents empowering the United States of America."
Don Peay, head of Utahns for Trump, said the so-called "Brexit" vote in Britain will boost support for Trump in Utah. Support has lagged in the reliably Republican state for the controversial billionaire businessman.
Trump, who finished third in the state GOP presidential preference caucus vote in March, has seen his lead over Clinton slip and his temperament and qualifications questioned by Utah voters in recent polls.
"One of Trump's main agenda items is to return the power back to the people and take it away from Washington, D.C.," Peay said. "Under a President Trump, the governor and local elected officials will make decisions."
That's the same sentiment that drove the vote in Britain, Peay said, concern over officials in Brussels, the capital of the European Union, "making rules about people's lives in England."
He said Trump recognizes "the people and elites in D.C. are out of touch with Utah," just as the EU was with the working class voters worried enough about immigration and other issues to defy their party leaders.
Chaffetz, who is supporting Trump but has criticized him for calling for a ban on Muslim immigrants, said American voters want control of the borders and a "reasonable process" for immigration.
"I do think there is a reason Donald Trump has attracted millions of new people into the process. He's tapping into people who want their voices to be heard. I think that's a good thing," Chaffetz said.
University of Utah law professor Wayne McCormack, who teaches international law, said Trump is attempting to appeal to the same kind of "rampant tribalism" that resulted in the vote to leave the EU.
"It's basically what he's playing to," McCormack said, with his campaign slogan, "Let's make America great again" and calls for immigrant bans and walls along the Mexican border. "It's our tribe against their tribe."
McCormack, who said Britain's decision that it would be better off on its own was "anti-immigration, anti-Europe," said he wasn't sure what impact the overseas vote would have on Trump's candidacy.
"I don't know if it empowers him or makes it more obvious what he's doing," McCormack said. His hope, he said, is that the British vote is a wake-up call to the need to combat isolationism.
"It is a globalized world," he said, "whether we like it or not."
