Trump’s interview with Nigel Farage: Seven things we learned

LONDON — Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Nigel Farage has interviewed Donald Trump. 

The former Brexit Party leader sat down this week with his good pal, the former (and possibly future) U.S. president, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for an interview on the right-wing British broadcaster GB News.

The Farage-Trump double act is anything but a rare sight. The British populist has interviewed Trump on a number of occasions in his modern guise as a reporter — encounters not exactly noted for the hardball nature of Farage’s questions.

But Trump being Trump, the interviews still deliver news. This one featured lines on everything from the future of the West to Prince Harry.

You know the drill: POLITICO watched the half-hour interview so you don’t have to.

NATO is saved! (Maybe)

Farage, Britain’s arch-Brexiteer, may have inadvertently helped settle some nerves in Europe.

Amid widespread worries about the future of NATO under a potential second Trump presidency, the man himself told Farage the U.S. will “100 percent” remain in the trans-Atlantic alliance if he returns to the White House. This statement did, however, come with caveats, as he warned European countries not to “take advantage” of American support.

Trump has been highly critical of NATO for years, and allies’ fears were heightened after the former president said last month he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that didn’t meet their financial obligations to the alliance.

In the latest Farage interview he assured allies that a Trump-run U.S. would come to their aid if they were attacked. But he added that “the United States should pay its fair share, not everybody else’s fair share” — while musing that a “nice, big, beautiful ocean” lies between Europe and the Americas.

We can negotiate with Putin

“I got along with Putin great,” Trump told Farage — as he once again talked up his negotiation chops with the Russian leader.

Trump drew criticism during his presidency for at times cosying up to Vladimir Putin, who recently claimed another six year term as president following phony elections across Russia.

Trump has been highly critical of NATO for years | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Asked if Putin is a person the West can negotiate with, Trump answered in the affirmative — before returning to self-congratulation, his favorite topic.

“Yeah, I think he is. We did very well with him,” Trump said.

“Look, you know, I’m the one that stopped the pipeline — Nord Stream Two. People don’t realize that … and then Biden came in right away and he approved it,” he added, in a reference to U.S. opposition to the German-Russian gas pipeline project that didn’t last beyond his tenure in the White House.

Royal revelations

In a moment so newsy that GB News promoted it the day before the interview was broadcast, Trump warned that estranged U.K. royal Prince Harry could be deported from the U.S. if he had lied about taking drugs on his American visa application. 

The prince — residing in California since he and his wife Meghan’s exit from the royal family and move to the U.S. — admitted in his 2023 memoir “Spare” to using drugs and psychedelics including cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms

“We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action,” he said.

“Which might mean … not staying in America?” Farage asked, to which Trump, for once coy, answered: “Oh I don’t know. You’ll have to tell me. You just have to tell me.”

At another point Trump offered his backing to Princess of Wales Kate Middleton, who has dominated the headlines after admitting to having manipulated a photo.

“Well, it shouldn’t be a big deal. Because everybody doctors [pictures], you look at these movie actors, and you see a movie actor and you meet them and you say, is that the same person in the picture?” Trump said.

“And I looked at that [picture], actually, and it was a very minor doctoring. It is a rough period and, you know, they’re really going after her.”

Shirking Starmer

Trump hasn’t used his spare time since leaving office to contact U.K. opposition leader Keir Starmer, he revealed.

“I’m not reaching out. I’m not president right now,” Trump said. “I’ll reach out if it’s appropriate. It’s not my job to reach out.”

Starmer — who is the favorite to become the next U.K. prime minister — is hardly the former president’s biggest fan, telling POLITICO’s Power Play podcast recently that a Trump victory would not be his “desired outcome,” and that there was a “great deal of concern” Trump may change the American position on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

But as the Labour leader later told the BBC, concerning a potential Trump presidency: “We have to make it work. That doesn’t mean that … we would agree on everything, but we have to make it work.” Whether Trump agrees remains to be seen.

Law and order election battleground

Trump went further than before on his support for law enforcement, saying “we’re going to get them immunity so they can’t get arrested and charged and destroyed.”

“They’re going to be able to stop crime,” he added. The former president criticized what he described as a “politically correct” response to crime.

Trump has consistently touted his support for the police in an effort to paint the Democrats as more concerned about criminals than victims.

Trump drew criticism during his presidency for at times cosying up to Vladimir Putin | Robert Perry/Getty Images

He has also spoken out against the Black Lives Matter movement, which became prominent after a series of high-profile incidents of police brutality toward Black people during Trump’s presidency.

Rude about Rudd

No Trump interview is complete without some score-settling.

In line for the Trump treatment on Tuesday was Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the U.S, who before taking up that position described Trump as “nuts” and a “traitor to the West.”

Trump took the bait when Farage offered it. “He won’t be there long if that’s the case. I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty,” he said.

“I hear he’s not the brightest bulb, but I don’t know much about him. If he’s at all hostile he will not be there long.”

Trump’s new favorite TV channel

Trump does relatively few interviews — but he keeps coming back to Farage.

That offers Farage’s current abode, GB News — a right-wing upstart broadcaster with an average weekly audience in the thousands, rather than the millions — unique access to a man who has every chance of becoming the most powerful man in the West (again). Trump positively beamed at his old pal Farage as the interview, his third with GB News, began.

That access comes at the price of hardball questions, however.

Trump started the interview by railing against the 2020 presidential election and repeating his baseless claims of electoral fraud and “cheating.” Setting the tone for the rest of the interview, Farage simply chuckled without offering any pushback.

Even Piers Morgan — another (former) Trump chum — clashed with the former president over his allegation that the 2020 election was stolen, resulting in an on-screen bust-up.

But the softball questions suit Trump well, meaning we can expect to see more of the Farage-Trump show on GB News as the election approaches. And maybe beyond, too.