"title"=>"Farage: Trump hates the EU so much he ‘makes me look like a Europhile’",
"summary"=>"The Brexiteer also predicted the former US president would return to office come November. \"It's gonna be so great.\"",
"content"=>"\n
BRUSSELS — Brexit champion Nigel Farage said Donald Trump dislikes Brussels so much it makes him look like the EU’s best friend in comparison.
\n\n\n\nFarage, a British right-wing politician who successfully spearheaded a yearslong campaign to get the U.K. out of the EU, claimed, “I never really repeat what Trump and I say in private, but I do think there are times when Trump makes me look like a Europhile in terms of what he thinks about Brussels structures.”
\n\n\n\nDuring his keynote speech at a controversial hard-right event in Brussels, Farage predicted — performing a half-decent impression of the former U.S. leader — that Trump would be returning to the White House after November’s U.S. election. “It’s gonna be so great,” he said.
\n\n\n\nHe later called a Dutch journalist “fake news” and said “China” in Trump’s patented curt style.
\n\n\n\nTrump famously referred to Brussels as being “like a hellhole” when he was first running to be U.S. president.
\n\n\n\nFarage’s keynote speech at the National Conservative Conference in Brussels took place in a febrile atmosphere after the city’s police ordered the event to be shut down. Other scheduled speakers included Suella Braverman, the former British home secretary, and Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán who is slated to speak Wednesday.
\n\n\n\nAs Farage spoke, police gathered at the entrance of the venue. He paid tribute to the “brave Tunisian” owner of the Claridge event space for standing up to “bullyboys” who wanted the event shut down.
\n\n\n\nThe British politician — rumored to be weighing a comeback to front-line national politics — said Trump got China right and praised his Middle East policy on Iran and on forging the Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic deals between Israel and some Arab nations. He accused EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell of appeasing Iran.
\n\n\n\nSpeaking without notes, Farage played the hits, railing against the EU, calling on its remaining member countries to quit because it is now unreformable and “anti-democratic,” while hitting out at the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights as having been politicized.
\n\n\n\nHe also reflected on his own image in Brussels, quipping that former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt — with whom he regularly clashed as an MEP in the European Parliament — wouldn’t welcome him back with open arms.
\n\n\n\n“You’ve got to be a bit odd to stand up in the European Parliament and be booed every week by 500 people,” Farage said. “Maybe I’m a bit odd.”
\n","author"=>"Eddy Wax, Claudia Chiappa",
"link"=>"https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-says-donald-trump-hates-the-eu-so-much-makes-me-look-europhile/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication",
"published_date"=>Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:17:28.000000000 UTC +00:00,
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"feed_url"=>"https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-says-donald-trump-hates-the-eu-so-much-makes-me-look-europhile/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication",
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"created_at"=>Tue, 16 Apr 2024 19:09:57.998269000 UTC +00:00,
"updated_at"=>Mon, 21 Oct 2024 20:05:08.025558000 UTC +00:00,
"newspaper"=>"Politico EU",
"macro_region"=>"Europe"}