A new best friend... and a VERY boozy night
LIKE so many of the big events in Nigel Farage’s life, his ‘special relationship’ with Donald Trump was the product of a boozy night out.
It was 4.30am in Cleveland, Ohio, and Farage was in an ‘iffy’ bar, having watched Trump accept the Republican nomination in the city a few hours earlier on July 21. At that point Farage had never met Trump. And virtually no one outside Washington had heard of Brexit.
Farage was sitting at an outside table of the bar with close aide and businessman Andy Wigmore, smoking a cigarette. They went back inside to order one last round – and triggered the events that have put Farage closer to the new White House than Theresa May.
Farage bumped into a group of drunken Republicans who worked for Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, a Trump cheerleader.
One of the Republican revellers, Bryant aide John Bartley Boykin, invited Farage to meet his boss in Mississippi. A month later Farage, accompanied by Wigmore and Ukip donor, millionaire Aaron Banks, jetted back to the US to meet Bryant and attend a private Trump fundraising event.
After three ‘cappuccino martinis’ each – a favourite Farage ‘sharpener’ – at Heathrow and four bottles of red wine between them on the flight, they were driven to Governor Bryant’s official mansion in Jackson.
After a ‘great Southern feast’ hosted by Bryant, the Governor took Farage and his male guests to his ‘man cave’ – a converted garage full of motorbikes, old Chevy cars, comfy chairs, and a bar.
According to Banks’s book, The Bad Boys Of Brexit, it was only then that Bryant told Farage he had arranged for him to address 15,000 Republicans at a much bigger, second Trump event the following day.
Farage was in a side room with a gin-and-tonic in hand when Trump walked in, gave him a bear hug and congratulated him on ‘a great job winning Brexit’. Banks says Trump was so impressed by Farage’s performance at the fundraiser, he asked him to introduce him at the rally – to the fury of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was bumped off to make way for Donald’s new best friend.
Introducing Farage, Trump praised him for ‘winning back Britain’s independence’. A Trump election victory would win back America’s independence, he said.
Farage told the crowd: ‘I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me. In fact, I wouldn’t vote for her if she paid me.’ Afterwards, Trump thanked the Ukip leader for his support, adding: ‘I won’t forget it.’