‘Go play golf’: Farage urges Trump to accept potential defeat

By Jacob Paul (with Emily, Jon & Lewis)

The News Agents may be in Washington DC for the US election, but they are not the only Brits who have crossed the Atlantic for the big day.

Read time: 2 minutes

In brief:

• Nigel Farage has given an interview from Washington DC expressing his support for Donald Trump on election night.
• He has urged the former president to go to Scotland and play golf, rather than contest the results, if he loses.
• The News Agents say it is “extraordinary” to see a man who usually doesn’t allow a cigarette paper between himself and Trump politically, issue these comments.

What’s the story?

Nigel Farage has told Donald Trump to go and “play golf” instead of claiming election fraud if he loses the presidential race.

The Reform UK leader and Clacton MP may have been cheering the Republican on from the stands at Trump’s final rally, but he has also distanced himself from some of his rhetoric.

Already, there are fears the Republican could refuse to accept the result if it doesn’t go his way, like he did in 2020. He has baselessly claimed the Democrats are a “bunch of cheats” and that Harris can only win “if it was a corrupt election”.

Despite previously signaling his unrelenting support for Trump, Farage is urging the Republican nominee to stop this messaging.

Is there a real surge for Kamala Harris?

What has Farage said?

Farage has said in an interview that Trump should “go and play golf” in Scotland if he loses to Harris.

The Reform UK leader is hoping that the election does not come down to a few thousand votes like it did in Georgia in 2020, which he implied gave Trump scope to contest the result.

“Let’s hope and pray that is not an issue this time. If it [the outcome] was clear then Republicans have to accept the result”, he said.

But if Harris wins the election, Farage advised her to pardon Trump, who has 34 felony convictions, to “dampen down” the threat of civil unrest in the wake of his potential defeat.

Farage said: “If she gets in on Tuesday I hope she pardons him. She could look magnanimous and it would dampen down potential tensions.

“If it was clear and decisive then maybe it’s time to go and play golf at Turnberry.”

But the Trump supporter said this is “all hypothetical”.

“I still think he is going to win,” the MP added.

What has Trump said about Farage?

At the Pennsylvania rally on Monday, Trump gave a nod to his loyal supporter, saying that Farage was the “big winner” in the general election in which Reform UK snatched up multiple seats from the Tories - but Labour won by a landslide.

Trump told the rally: “He has always been my friend for some reason. He likes me, I like him. He is shaking it up pretty good over there. He was the big winner of the last election in the UK.”

“He has always been my friend for some reason. He likes me, I like him. He is shaking it up pretty good over there. He was the big winner of the last election in the UK.“He is a very spectacular man, very highly respected. He’s a little bit of a rebel but that’s good - don’t change Nigel.”Farage was seemingly thrilled, Emily Maitlis points out.

She says: "Honestly, Farage looked like he just won the birthday cake. He was so excited, and he stood up and he punched the air with his fist, and he was just delighted. He loves it”

What’s The News Agents take?

“The boundaries of Clacton-on-Sea do stretch quite a long way west” jokes Jon Sopel. 

Jon says of the “extraordinary” interview: “I thought it was telling that Farage used that language about the possibility of defeat, and Donald Trump mustn't contest the result of it.”

Lewis agrees that it was unusual of Farage to deliver this kind of interview. He says: “Farage has never allowed a cigarette paper of space politically between himself and Trump. 

“I've heard him talk about it in explicit terms."

He says the reason he has currency in purchase with Trump and the people around Trump is that they know that he's the only foreign or British political figure that basically does not try and detract from him in any way whatsoever.”

The fact that Farage posited the idea of Harris pardoning Trump for his previous crimes was also a “very interesting intervention”, Lewis says. 

But Emily points out that this would have to come from the current president - Joe Biden. “The last act, the most egregious thing you could now ask Joe Biden to do, the only man who's beaten Trump, would be to pardon Trump.”

This all plays into what we have seen from Harris and Trump over the last few hours, Lewis adds. 

He says: “Just looking at Trump and Harris, their body language, how they're talking, something tells me Trump knows that maybe this election is going the wrong way.”

Listen out for our special US election coverage, with two episodes on Wednesday 6 November at 7am and 5pm.

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents now.

---