Donald Trump hails 'friend' Nigel Farage at US election rally

Donald Trump hailed Nigel Farage as his 'friend' as he picked the Reform UK leader out from the crowd at one of his final US election campaign rallies.

The presidential hopeful praised the Brexiteer as 'a little bit of a rebel' after he spotted him at the event in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Mr Trump declared Mr Farage, one of five Reform MPs in the House of Commons, as 'the big winner of the last election in the UK', adding: 'He's shaking it up pretty good.'

As the Republican candidate addressed him, Mr Farage stood up and waved a turquoise-coloured 'Make America Great Again' hat to the rest of the audience.

But, back in Westminster, there were questions about why Mr Farage is more than 3,500 miles away from the Commons - or his Clacton constituency - while Parliament is sitting.

Labour's Patrick Hurley, MP for Southport, pointedly said: 'I've been in Parliament all day representing my constituents.'

Tom Watson, a Labour peer and the party's former deputy leader, noted there was 'lots going on' in Parliament today, including justice questions and a debate on the Budget.

Mr Farage's decision to head across the Atlantic also means he will miss a Westminster Hall debate on the future of British fishing - an issue he has regularly campaigned on.

That debate is due to be led by Rupert Lowe, his fellow Reform MP.

Amid the backlash at Mr Farage's trip to the US, many contrasted his public support for Mr Trump at a campaign rally with his previous anger at alleged election 'meddling' by Labour.

When it was revealed Labour were arranging for 100 staff to help Kamala Harris - Mr Trump's rival for the White House - Mr Farage claimed it was 'direct election interference' by Sir Keir Starmer's party.

Speaking to LBC radio from the Trump rally in Pennsylvania, Mr Farage branded Ms Harris 'a terrible candidate'.

He rated Joe Biden's presidency as 'catastrophic' and Ms Harris's vice presidency as 'nul points'.

Mr Farage also praised Mr Trump as a 'great ranconteur' and 'a great joke teller'.

'He's really very funny and we've never seen that in public,' he added. 'The last few weeks, we have jokes he's been telling... all that side of it makes him look a lot more human.'

During the rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Mr Trump had gushed about Mr Farage as he said 'he's always been my friend for some reason'. 

He told a crowd at the Santander Arena: 'We have a man from Europe. I don't know if he's here, I saw him backstage.

'What he is doing is sort of what we did a few years ago. He's doing a great job. 

'He's always been my friend for some reason. He liked me, I like him. He's shaking it up over there. He was the big winner of the last election in the UK.

'He's a spectacular man, very well respected. Nigel Farage. He's a little bit of a rebel but that's good. Don't change Nigel.'

Mr Farage rose to his feet, waved a £42 turquoise MAGA baseball cap and punched his fist in the air as the crowd clapped and cheered. 

Speaking ahead of the rally, Mr Farage said he was in the US as part of his role with GB News and would be following Mr Trump around the country 'as much as we can'.

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'Look, I just think a Trump win will make a world a safer place,' Mr Farage said. 

'There's all sorts that have been talked about with opinion polls. There's no doubt it's tight, I still think Trump's going to win.'

But if Ms Harris does win the election then she should pardon Mr Trump to 'dampen down' the threat of unrest, Mr Farage said.

The Reform UK leader also suggested the Republican candidate should concede defeat and 'go and play golf' in Scotland rather than claim the vote was stolen if he suffers a 'clear and decisive loss' on Tuesday.

Mr Trump faces sentencing later in November after he was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election.

Mr Farage, who last month accused Labour of 'direct interference' in the American vote after it emerged that party activists had volunteered for Ms Harris's campaign, said: 'If she gets in on Tuesday I hope she pardons him.

'She could look magnanimous and it would dampen down potential tensions.'

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Washington is braced for potential civil disorder after the storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump insurrectionists following Joe Biden's 2020 election win, with polls placing the Republican candidate and Ms Harris in a dead heat.

Mr Farage suggested his friend should avoid rejecting Tuesday's result, as he did four years ago, if he loses decisively to his Democrat rival.

'If it was clear and decisive then maybe it's time (for Mr Trump) to go and play golf at Turnberry,' he said.

'It's all hypothetical and I still think he is going to win.'

His intervention comes after he last month accused Labour of 'direct election interference' over its staffers helping the Democrats, which the party says is common practice and done at activists' own expense and in line with US laws.

'This is direct election interference by the governing Labour Party, and particularly stupid if Trump wins. Who is paying for all this?' he had written on X, formerly Twitter.

The Clacton MP has travelled to the US to support Mr Trump on multiple occasions, including a visit in July for which he declared £32,836 from a private donor for flights and accommodation.

In the register of MP interests, he said the purpose of the trip was 'to support a friend who was almost killed and to represent Clacton on the world stage'.

Mr Farage turned up at the Trump rally in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Monday, where both US candidates converged in a final push before election day.

As recently as Sunday, Mr Trump renewed his false claims that American elections are rigged against him, mused about violence against journalists and said he 'shouldn't have left' the White House in 2021.

Ms Harris has vowed to be a president 'for all Americans' and urged voters to take the opportunity to 'turn the page' on the politics of 'division'.