ORLANDO, Florida –The father of Brexit and the U.K. Independence Party told The Star News Network in an exclusive interview he believes his friend President Donald J. Trump is ready to make another run for the White House and that Florida Republican Governor Ronald D. DeSantis does not connect with regular voters.
“I think he wants to go again. I genuinely do. And that’ll, of course, depend on the party, but I think if Trump wants the nomination, it’s his,” said Nigel P. Farage, who is now a top-rated talk show host on the United Kingdom-based GBN.
Farage said the one complication is Trump’s relationship with DeSantis and whether the Florida governor runs against Trump in the 2024 primaries.
“I do think that it’s important for the Republican party, that the relationship between him and DeSantis is a good, strong, healthy relationship,” said the Dulwich College.
“If this finishes that up in a terrible rivalry between the two, it won’t hurt the cause,” he said. “Although, I could say this, couldn’t I? At least there were two outstanding people in the Republican party. How many do the Democrats have?”
The talk show host said he is sure Trump and DeSantis will smooth things out.
“I mean, they haven’t got to be best mates, but you don’t want open warfare breaking out,” he said.
Farage said he had met DeSantis, and he appreciated the support he has in Florida based on the job he is doing as governor during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve met him, and I think he’s a very talented guy, but I don’t think he reaches out to the blue-collar vote in Michigan the same way that Donald Trump does,” he said.
When Farage was in Florida, where he spoke and broadcast at the 2022 Conservative Political Action Conference, he met up with Trump, and he was impressed.
“Well, I think that he is looking fitter than any ex-president in my lifetime,” he said.
“They normally – after four or eight years look like they’re completely washed out, and actually he’s very vigorous,” Farage said. “He’s lost a bit of weight since he was president. He’s playing lots of golf, which for a man of 75 is good.”
Farage: Biden’s weakness set the table for Russia’s push into Ukraine
Farage said unlike other political observers in England and the rest of Europe, he did not have any optimism about President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“No, I didn’t,” he said.
“Many others did,” he said. “I mean, the mainstream media view is that Trump’s a bad dude and that Joe is kind of cuddly and nice and great, and that all fell to pieces in the space of 48 hours when America decided to unilaterally withdraw from Afghanistan without even referencing or discussing it with your closest military ally in the world, us, and that changed perceptions of Biden almost overnight.”
In the U.K., there was the shock that Biden had no interest in consulting the British, especially in light of the combat casualties they took fighting alongside the American troops, the former commodities broker said.
“I mean, there’d be one or two exceptions, but most major conflicts in the world since 1917, we’ve been pretty much side by side,” Farage said.
“In Afghanistan, by the way, you are bigger than us, but pro rata, we put in, per head, the same number of troops, the same amount of money as America did,” he said. “We maintained that balance and that promise all the way through for 20 years, and then to be treated like that was just disgusting, so I think perceptions have changed.”
Farage: Johnson is doing a good job with the Ukraine crisis
Farage said he is satisfied with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership during the Ukraine crisis.
“I think Johnson generally over the last week has given a fair bit of leadership – the rest of Europe has struggled,” he said.
“You know, the Germans wouldn’t even talk about sanctions, because of course, they take so much gas from Russia, but really the big picture is this: NATO,” he said. “If there was to be an incursion into Poland or Estonia for arguments’ sake, what does NATO do? Does it stick to the pledge that it made back in the late 1940s that an attack on one is an attack on all?”
Farage said he is concerned if Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s charter is triggered upon a Russian attack on a NATO member, there will be a much larger conflict.
“This really depends on America because, without America, NATO is nothing, just because of the size of America and the size of the American military,” he said.
“This is tough, but we need something from Biden fairly quickly,” he said. “I understand that many Americans will say: ‘Hey, come on, Ukraine? Where the hell is it? Why does it matter to us?’ Much as there were similar voices in America saying in 1917 and in the early forties: ‘Why are we getting ourselves involved in a war in Europe?’”
Farage said the world still needs America to be engaged.
“The truth of it is that if we don’t stand firm now as the West and say that NATO is our red line, that we are united around those principles, then it isn’t just an open door to Mr. Putin. It’s an open door to Beijing as well, and that’s what really worries me,” he said.
Americans should remember how Prime Minister Neville Chamberville dismissed Germany’s 1938 usurpation of Czechoslovakia.
“‘A faraway place of which we know little.’ I say, a lot of Americans will say that today. A lot of Brits will probably say it as well, but we have to think a little bit bigger about it, I think,” he said.
Farage: Brexit means Great Britain is free to seek its own interests internationally
The father of Brexit said Johnson has more of a free hand in foreign policy since Great Britain left the European Union.
“We’re much freer on the world stage, and we’re a much bigger voice again on the world stage,” the native of Farnborough, Kent, said.
Another example is the trilateral pact between the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, announced Sept. 15, the so-called AUKUS partnership.
The pact created a framework for military cooperation, particularly in maritime defense and submarine warfare, including the Australians agreeing to forgo buying French submarines in favor of American-built submarines.
“We’re going to help provide the Australians, obviously for money, but help provide the Australians with nuclear-powered submarines as opposed to the old diesel ones.”
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Neil W. McCabe is the national political editor of The Star News Network based in Washington. He is an Army Reserve public affairs NCO and an Iraq War veteran. Send him news tips: [email protected]. Follow him on TruthSocial & GETTR: @ReporterMcCabe
Photo “Nigel Farage” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.
