The Farage-Trump bromance is as strong as ever – here’s how it could backfire

When Volodymyr Zelensky was publicly dressed down by Donald Trump in the Oval Office last month, senior Conservatives leapt to the Ukrainian president’s defence.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded “respectable diplomacy” and branded Vladimir Putin the real “villain”, while her shadow Justice Secretary, Robert Jenrick, went much further, saying he was “sickened” by the “degrading spectacle” and that Winston Churchill “would be turning in his grave”.

But the response from their right-wing political rival Nigel Farage, a close friend of Trump, took longer and was less strident.

The Reform UK leader said the next morning that the “spat” was “regrettable” and would leave Putin feeling “like the real winner”.

His words showed the tightrope he is walking.

While the Reform leader is a friend and confidante of Trump, most of the British public are deeply sceptical of the US President, particularly his stance on Ukraine.

The balancing act has not passed the Tories by – they want to exploit it to claw back ground lost to Reform in the polls.

In the latest instalment of our video series on the rise of Reform, The i Paper examines Farage’s relationship with Trump and the repercussions it could have for British politics.

Their friendship was forged in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum in 2016, when Farage joined Trump on the campaign trail to support his first run for the White House.

James D Boys, an academic and US politics expert, told The i Paper that the strength of Trump and Farage’s relationship hinges on the fact they “both see elements of themselves in one another”.

He said: “Both will see themselves as speaking truth to power and presenting themselves in a direct fashion, in stark contrast to what they would see as the high-falutin’ style of most politicians who speak over the heads of most people, pride themselves in having gone to elite universities and are seen as being out of touch with the average individual on the street.”

However, polling shows that British voters do not share Farage’s affection for Trump. According to YouGov, more than three-quarters of Britons have an unfavourable opinion of Trump.

The picture is different for Reform voters, who are more split. But even among these voters, Trump’s popularity has nosedived since the Oval Office bust-up with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Forty-one per cent of Reform voters also think Trump is handling the war in Ukraine “very badly”.

In Farage’s parliamentary seat of Clacton in Essex, The i Paper picked up mixed views on Farage and his so-called bromance with Trump.

One constituent said: “Sorry, I do not like Donald Trump. I think he’s just a pompous person who thinks he’s so good and everything, and I’m not sure he’s the right man for the job.”

Another called Trump a “nutcase”.

“I love a maverick,” one woman said, while a male Clacton resident described Trump as “another Nigel Farage, isn’t he? He does what he says”.

Another said: “If Trump gives us a good deal when it comes to UK stuff, when it comes to foreign policy, then maybe [the friendship between Farage and Trump would] be a good thing or bad thing. It really depends.”

Farage’s proximity to the world’s most powerful man of course creates opportunities for Reform.

Before getting the job as the UK’s ambassador to the US, Lord Mandelson publicly floated the idea of using Farage as a “bridgehead” to Trump.

And Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, told The i Paper: “Nigel will do what’s in the national interest, of that everybody should be in no doubt whatsoever.

“The US is our most important strategic partner, both in terms of security and also in terms of trading relationships. And it’s really important that we continue with that.

“At the end of the day, we have our greatest trading surplus and investment both ways with the US, and we need to grow that and maintain that.”

But Reform’s rivals also believe that Farage’s association with Trump is a political vulnerability, which they can target.

Trump’s attempt to make common cause with Putin is seen as a particular liability because Reform’s opponents believe they can link it to previous controversial comments which Farage has made about the Russian leader and Ukraine.

In 2014, Farage said Putin was the world leader he admired most “as an operator, but not as a human being”, and last year he got into hot water after saying that Nato and the EU “provoked” the invasion of Ukraine. Farage has since clarified or partially rowed back on both comments.

Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative former shadow foreign secretary, claimed that Reform’s “Trumpian” politics would put-off voters that have previously backed the Tories.

He said: “Britain’s interests are best served by containing Putin’s imperial Russian ambitions definitively – or the Baltic states will be next.

“We now have to accept that the assumption that UK/US interests are joined at the hip – as has been the case for more than 80 years – may not always be true.

“Reform’s obsession with all things Trumpian is unlikely to appeal to the vast majority of those who traditionally have supported the Conservative Party.”

Lord Barwell, a Tory peer who was Theresa May’s chief of staff in No 10, said: “The evidence not just from the UK but from around the world, is that association with Donald Trump is bad news for populist right parties.”

He pointed to the revival of Canada’s Liberal Party, soaring approval ratings for Mexico’s leftist president Claudia Sheinbaum, as well as the fact that Germany’s far-right AfD did not receive a polling bounce after being endorsed by Maga figures such as Elon Musk.

Barwell said Farage’s proximity to Trump presented a “real opportunity” for the Tories, “particularly on the Ukraine issue”.

“Obviously one of the challenges the Conservative Party has got, which Kemi has acknowledged, is the record of the last two or three Conservative governments. But I think most voters would say one thing that Boris Johnson was good on was Ukraine.”

It gave the Tories a “clear point of differentiation” with Reform, he said.

Barwell said the Tories had greater freedom than Labour to use Trump as a dividing line with Farage’s party, because Sir Keir Starmer would have to refrain from criticising the Republican for as long as he remained in the White House.

However, with the next UK general election expected after the 2028 US Presidential election, and with Trump constitutionally prevented from standing for a third term – at least as things currently stand – Barwell said he expected Labour to eventually pivot to a more anti-Trump position.

“You’ll see Labour in particular when they’re in seats where they’re fighting Reform, basically branding Farage as Trump,” he said.

“In the final approach to the election, [Trump’s] not going to be there anymore, and the Government will have a lot more freedom maybe to message about some of this stuff than it would want to do right now, for obvious reasons.”

On how Badenoch should handle Trump, he said: “I would say the right thing for a kind of centre-right politician to do is, first of all, I don’t think you want to get into just constantly attacking the president of the United States, whoever they are.

“I think you want to be very clear to differentiate where you disagree, as on the treatment of Zelensky in that meeting.

“I think you also want to look at what are the strengths of Trump, what are the things where what he’s doing has resonated with American voters, and are there positive lessons you can learn?

“Where you think Trump actually has a point, even if you don’t agree with the detail of his methods necessarily, what are appropriate lessons you can learn from that? And where we clearly think he’s not right – Ukraine, treatment of Zelensky is a prime example – you’ve got a bit more freedom than the Government’s got to speak out clearly on that, without overly personalising it.”

However, other figures in the Conservative Party are more downbeat about whether Trump will be an effective wedge issue with Reform.

One Tory source said: “Ukraine and Trump have been rumbling on for some time now and it hasn’t dented Reform’s polling numbers.”

Reform was approached for comment.

On Trump, the party has said in the past that having a strong relationship with the US President is beneficial to the UK and its national security.

On Ukraine, Reform has said it backs negotiations to end the bloodshed, and that any peace deal should include security guarantees for Kyiv.

At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Farage was conspicuously absent. It was later reported that he had missed it to fly to the US for a Republican fundraising event in Florida.

Clearly, Farage has no intention of choosing between loyalty to Trump and his goal of replacing the Tories just yet.

His tightrope walk goes on.