Britain’s right appears too wary of upsetting Trump and his administration when speaking on American soil
WASHINGTON DC — Nigel Farage strode onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to a rag bag audience of Maga hats and half-full auditorium.
It didn’t matter who was in the crowd, though. His speech was directed at voters at home.
“We are going to win the next general election,” he declaimed, in a nine-minute oration which took in how he had been personally responsible for Brexit and how Brexit had made a wave which carried Donald Trump into power the first time around.
Now, Trump’s wave of success was blowing back over the Atlantic and would propel Reform UK to power, he said.
The Reform UK leader said he went through “hell” to get Brexit done, but it was “nothing” to what Trump went through.
“Endless court cases, mainstream media abuse, harassment of his family, de-banking from some of the worst financial institutions, assassination attempts” led him to conclude Trump is “simply the bravest man I know, and we should applaud him.”
The CPAC conference is at the National Harbor in Maryland, just outside Washington, hosting right-wing populists from around the world urging greater ties and cooperation. Trump, riding high in the polls, is praised in every single speech. He is due to speak on Saturday.
But Farage was also full of praise for American Vice President JD Vance who lectured European leaders on succumbing to woke ideology last week and for the “hero” of free speech, X owner Elon Musk.
However, even as Farage was telling his American audience about the failure of the “left-wing, awful” government at home there was no mention of the massive elephant in the room.
That’s how – and even whether – to stand up to Trump as he backs Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory and belittles its president as a “dictator.”
British politicians have spent the last week trying to stay on the ever-swaying tightrope of keeping Trump sweet but not letting Ukraine down. They’ve had varying degrees of success.
Speaking to his colleagues on GB News on Thursday afternoon, Farage said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “not a dictator” but added, “But it’s only right and proper that Ukrainians have a timeline for elections.”
It’s unlikely you’ll hear that comment repeated on American soil, so wary is Britain’s right of upsetting Trump and his administration.
Former Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is caught in the same bind as Farage, wanting to be able to lobby the administration but not call them out directly.
Johnson said Trump’s comments “are not intended to be historically accurate, but to shock Europeans into action.” The ex-prime minister is triangulating so badly he’s going to need a chiropractor to fix that awkward position.
The only British politician who seems to be enjoying himself is Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. From the luxury of eternal opposition, he’s has been having a marvellous time asking everyone else where they stand on Trump’s comments, while condemning the president wholeheartedly.
Up earlier in the day at the CPAC conference was former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Suffering from diminishing returns for her I-was-right-all-along interviews with friendly media outlets at home, she’d popped up in the US to preach to the converted.
The UK, she argued, is “failing” and needed a Make America Great Again movement to save it. So far, so predictable.
The most interesting thing she said – and it’s an idea that has some currency even among mainstream politicians in Westminster – is that British voters see the speed at which change is happening in the US and want to copy it.
“We see Donald Trump signing off executive orders and we want some of that,” she told the conference.
We are currently at the apex of the strong man argument for effective governance. Two silverbacks, one in the White House, one in the Grand Kremlin Palace, are beating their chests and carving up Ukraine’s territory and minerals between them.
The trouble with upending parliamentary democracy and its accompanying institutions– frustratingly slow though it is – is it does provide checks and balances against people who make rash decisions. Such as unfunded tax cuts, to pluck an example from thin air.
Even Truss doesn’t agree with all of Trump’s analysis, especially his most inflammatory statements on Zelensky.
Truss, like Farage, didn’t mention Ukraine in her speech at CPAC but earlier she had told Talk TV that if Putin “succeeds in being rewarded for invading Ukraine, he won’t stop in Ukraine, that’s a worry for everybody in Europe.”
Diplomats are currently stress-testing what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could and should say when he visits the president in Washington next week.
He will almost certainly carry on with his strategy of trying to take the heat out of any potential flash points. He will hope to be bolstered by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, also visiting at the same time.
But there is a limit to how long politicians can keep on treading lightly in the face of such intransigence. Trump keeps insisting black is white. If Trump’s political friends are not capable of saying it directly, will Starmer and Macron be the ones to tell him otherwise?