Farage v Trump was never going to be Frost v Nixon. The former US President and the Ukip-leader-turned-GB News host are friends and their exclusive chat was bathed in an aura of pre-Christmas matey-ness. Nobody was pinned to their collar. There was never any danger of an intemperate walk-out.
The tone was of two chums shooting the breeze. After the cameras stopped rolling, it’s easy to picture the pair continuing their catch-up over a round of golf. And while it was of course fascinating to step back into Trump’s world, as political theatre the interrogation perhaps lacked that killer edge. It couldn’t have been any cuddlier had Farage arrived dressed as a teddy bear.
Yet if Farage didn’t attempt many two-footed lunges during his 30 minutes with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Estate, he kept the conversation cracking on and made sure to touch on as many juicy areas as possible. Meghan,the Duchess of Sussex, windfarms in Scotland and the splendidness of the Queen were just some of the subjects addressed in a 30-minute exchange that was less a heated interview than a whistle-stop tour of Donald Trump’s pet topics.
Trump has a reputation as a showman. Farage showed he was no slouch either as he stretched out his time with the former commander-in-chief into a two-hour special. With branding that suggested a new Rocky film rather than a long-form political broadcast on a rolling news channel, Farage beamed in from West Palm Beach wearing, in 25 degree heat, a lilac shirt and purple tie. His joy at landing an exclusive with Trump was uncontainable. “I can’t even tell you what a lovely day it’s been,” he began, adding he’d “not been here on holiday”.
“There’s no pretending. I’m a friend and a supporter,” continued Farage. “This did not stop me asking the important questions.”
The introduction was by way of building anticipation ahead of the interview, which took place in a Versailles-esque auditorium deep in Mar-a-Lago. To stretch out the excitement, GB News had divided Trump in two. In between the brace of 15-minute-segments, we cut back to West Palm Beach. Here Farage invited pundits from either side of the political spectrum to parse and critique’s Trump’s comments on the January 6 storming of the Capitol (not his fault) and Joe Biden’s record in office (he wasn’t a fan).
With a figure such as Trump, it’s often easier to let him lead the conversation. Which is perhaps why Farage chose to kick off with the political stuff and only later move on to more gossipy and esoteric subjects – “Megxit”, wind farms – in part two.
As Farage pointed out, Trump has rarely been seen on the international stage since leaving office. And so there was the strangest sense of tripping a year back in time as the camera alighted on the former president. Hunched slightly forward, he hadn’t changed much since losing the election. He certainly gave Farage the headlines for which he’d flown across the Atlantic.
“I’m not a fan of hers at all and I think she’s very disrespectful to the Queen,” he said of Meghan. The Queen was “a great woman, such a great person, a historic person”. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson was all at sea with his commitment to wind energy. “He’s wrong, Boris is wrong if he’s going heavy into wind. He’s making a big mistake.”
He also hinted at running for election in 2024, saying, “If you love the country you have no choice”.
Farage seemed delighted with that final titbit. But then he was thrilled throughout to be opposite the former custodian of the Oval Office. His GB News bosses will have been equally enthused. Farage had joined the channel with ratings in freefall. Now he had landed an exclusive already generating global headlines. All that and he’d had a chance to catch up with an old friend. No wonder he couldn’t stop smiling as he beamed in from the beach, somehow not melting in that shirt and tie.
