Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage is expected to attend next Sunday’s US presidential debate at the invitation of Donald Trump – a sign he is taking an increasingly prominent role in the Republican contender’s campaign.
A day after denying reports that he would be coaching the Republican presidential nominee for his second debate, Farage appeared on CNN to offer Trump some advice.
“Don’t let [Hillary Clinton] get under your skin. Whatever abuse she throws at you, ignore her! Don’t defend yourself. There’s no point. There isn’t time,” he told CNN.
“What you’ve got to do, Donald, is talk to people, sitting at home in their living rooms. Don’t get involved in a cat fight with Hillary.”
Farage, who was introduced by the network as “the only world leader who supports Mr. Trump,” has previously likened Brexit to the Trump movement and has been outspoken in his lack of support for Clinton. Farage is no longer the leader of any party.
“Hillary Clinton has led us into an endless series of wars, where we have made things worse, and is part of a big business, establishment,” he told CNN.
He added that American voters “want change,” much like people in Britain did with Brexit.
“I think that Trump is being portrayed in the British press as misogynistic and almost racist, and that’s what people haven’t liked very much.
“We are exactly 100 days on from the big Brexit vote that happened here in the United Kingdom, and the reason Brexit happened was a very large number of people who had not voted in previous elections, or in some cases had never voted in their lives, went out to vote against the establishment.
“I think the appeal that Trump has got in America is to say: ‘Look, we have got this stranglehold for the last couple of decades of big banks, big businesses and big politics who may have done well for themselves but they haven’t bettered your lives.”
Trump, who shares some of Farage’s concerns about immigration, has cast his candidacy in the same light as the Brexit campaign. He has said British people “took their country back” and that Americans are ready to do the same by voting for him.