Donald Trump led congratulations to his friend Nigel Farage on becoming a member of the British Parliament for the first time.
“Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a seat in Parliament amidst Reform UK’s electoral success. Nigel is a man who truly loves his country! DJT,” the Republican presidential candidate wrote in a post on TruthSocial.
However, in his social media activities, Trump made no reference to new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who had already said his government would work with whoever occupies the White House after the November election.
Farage, 60, originally said he had no plans to run in July’s election and had decided to focus on campaigning for Trump in the United States. A sudden change led him to abandon those plans and launch his campaign a month before votes were cast.
Partial results show that the anti-immigration Reform Party, the successor to the Brexit Party, has gained votes from both the Conservatives and Labour.
Donald Trump led congratulations to his friend Nigel Farage on becoming a member of the British Parliament for the first time
Farage easily won the election in the seaside town of Clacton, gaining almost 25,000 votes.
In his praise on social media, Trump made no reference to new Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Farage said the party would “come second in hundreds of constituencies.” It is not yet clear how many seats Reform will win.
He said there was a “huge vacuum” on the right of British politics and it was his job to fill it.
“My plan is to build a national mass movement over the course of the next few years,” he said.
Farage, a former member of the European Union Parliament from 1999 until Brexit, has stood several times in an attempt to enter Westminster.
Reform Party leader Farage won almost 25,000 votes in Clacton, an area that strongly supported Brexit in 2016.
The relationship between Trump and Farage dates back to 2016, when during the former Apprentice host’s first presidential campaign, he gave speeches on his behalf during the election campaign.
Farage was among those attending Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.
The relationship between the two was fostered in part by Republican activist John Bartley Boykin, who met Farage at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Boykin died last March at the age of 32.
If Trump emerges victorious in November in his battle against President Joe Biden, he will need to forge a relationship with the new Starmer government.
Recently, Starmer’s foreign secretary-elect, David Lammy, said that Trump is “often misunderstood.”
At Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, Lammy said the ceremony “filled him with joy.”
That same month, Lammy further condemned Trump.
“Donald Trump’s entire presidency has been a reign of recklessness, narcissism and deceit,” he wrote on Twitter.
