Farage shaves off that ’tache for big love-in with Trump
NIGEL Farage was cheered by 10,000 Donald Trump supporters as he told them to ‘stand up to the establishment’ at a Republican rally. The crowd lapped up the speech from the outgoing Ukip leader, who told them to take back their country with a ‘people’s army’ – just like in Britain.
Mr Farage – who had shaved off the moustache he has been sporting recently – also mocked US and UK leaders for backing the campaign for Britain to stay in the EU, adding that the Brexit vote on June 23 was the UK’s ‘Independence Day’.
He told the audience in Jackson, Mississippi: ‘I come to you from the UK with a message of hope and optimism.
‘If the little people, if the ordinary people are prepared to fight for what they believe in, we can overcome the big banks, the multinationals – and we did it.’
The extraordinary sight of Mr Farage on stage with Mr Trump was the first time a British politician has ever addressed a Republican presidential rally. Mr Farage also attended the party’s conven- tion last month, and is understood to have been invited to speak by Stephen Bannon – a Brexit supporter who is Mr Trump’s new presidential campaign manager. As he arrived on stage, Mr Farage shook Mr Trump’s hand and grinned after being introduced. Mr Trump said it was a ‘great honour’ to hear Mr Farage speak, describing him as the ‘man behind Brexit’.
In his ten- minute address Mr Farage said that, as with the Brexit campaign, the polls and experts were predicting that Mr Trump would lose – but would be proved wrong.
He sparked booing from the crowd when he mentioned David Cameron as ‘then our prime minister’.
They also clapped when Mr Farage attacked Barack Obama for having ‘talked down to us [Britain]’ – apparently referring to the US President’s remarks that Britain would go to the
‘Voted to reclaim control’
‘back of the queue’ in trade deals if it left the European Union.
Mr Farage added that he could ‘not possibly tell you how to vote’ in the November election. But he made his feelings clear when he said: ‘If I was an American citizen I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me.’
He insisted that the US had a ‘fantastic opportunity’ in the upcoming election, adding: ‘You’ll do it by doing what we did for Brexit in Britain. We had our own people’s army of ordinary citizens.’ He said that ‘anything is possible’ if people ‘ stand up against the establishment’.
In his own speech Mr Trump praised the Brexit campaign as a ‘movement’ which addressed similar issues to those affecting America.
The tycoon said: ‘They voted to break away from rule by large corporations who believe in a world without borders. They voted to reclaim control over immigration, over their economy, over their government.’ Mr Trump also said Democratic candidate Mrs Clinton was a ‘bigot’ who will do nothing for minority groups if she wins the election.
But Mrs Clinton told CNN that Mr Trump was ‘taking his hatefulness mainstream’ and dismissed his comments as ‘ridiculous’.