Farage: ‘Those Who Bet The House Against Donald Trump Generally Lose’

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 30: Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage outside Millbank studios on
Hollie Adams/Getty Images
Oliver JJ Lane

Brexit leader Nigel Farage has cited President Trump’s ability to turn setbacks into victory in his assessment of the present state of the race, particularly casting doubt on the state of polling.

The former member of the European Parliament, who succeeded in his long-stated aim of making his own job redundant by leading Britain in voting to leave the European Union in 2016, is regarded as the closest British politician to President Trump.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Farage reflected particularly on the present state of polling for the forthcoming general election, comparing both the strong polling Hillary Clinton enjoyed before her defeat in 2016, as well as the general mainstream consensus that Trump would definitely lose.

He told BBC radio host Jeremy Vine: “Back in 2015 when Donald Trump announced he was going to have a run for the presidency, it was one of the biggest jokes anyone had ever heard.

“He had no chance of getting through the primaries, no chance of getting the nomination for the Republican party, and do you know what? He did. In the middle of the campaign — the exact same time in the campaign [in 2016] — he was a dozen points behind in the national polls, nobody gave him a cat’s chance in hell, and did it. So this guy is quite good at turning things around and surprising people.”

Mr Farage also said that whole Biden’s supporters believed that President Trump contracting Coronavirus would play into their narratives and favour them at the ballot box, it was quite likely that the President would be able to “seize the initiative” and turn the tables on the opposition. He continued: “…coming out of hospital — those dramatic scenes with the helicopter — he stood on the balcony at the White House and he echoed President Roosevelt in the 30s, who was talking about the Great Depression, when he said ‘we have nothing to fear but fear itself, life must go on’.

“Now, if the majority of American people want to stay locked down, stay terrified of the virus, he will lose. But I think it’s time we heard something a bit more upbeat, a bit more optimistic, and a bit more realistic because the view of many of us — myself included — is the cure for covid is now worse than the disease.”

Mr Farage trod a similar path in a guest article for British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, when he again outlined how President Trump could use his personal brush with covid to his advantage. He wrote: “Trump’s pitch will be that he is the leader to get America moving again and his own personal trial with Covid-19 makes him stronger and even more determined to achieve this.

“If Donald Trump can take control of the agenda, he can succeed in squeezing Biden out of this contest. Those who bet the house against Donald Trump generally lose. Nobody should underestimate his ability once again to turn this setback into a victory.”

Nigel Farage led the United Kingdom to vote to leave the European Union in an upset result in 2016, generally credited by pollsters, the mainstream media, and the political establishment as an impossible outcome. President Trump pulled the same off just months later — the proximity of the two votes leading the men to subsequently discuss how the events were probably linked, with Britain’s willingness to go against the globalist consensus emboldening American cousins to do the same.

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