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Nigel Farage did not meet Donald Trump when he travelled to the US president’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Friday, as people close to the Reform UK leader say the relationship between the two populist politicians has cooled since 2024.
Farage had given the impression that he expected to see Trump, telling an event hosted in opposition to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s proposed Chagos Islands agreement with Mauritius that the president “has almost understood the deal . . . but I’ll be dining at Mar-a-Lago tomorrow night and I will reinforce the message”.
But, rather than receiving a formal invite to meet Trump, Farage was in fact invited to Mar-a-Lago by a member of the club, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.
They said Farage had hoped he would be able to catch Trump for a conversation as the US president was scheduled to travel to Mar-a-Lago that evening. However, Trump had a change in his itinerary and decided to stay instead in Doral, about an hour’s drive away.
The Reform leader’s failure to secure an audience with the US president underscores a weakening of ties between the two populist leaders who famously formed a close friendship in the years before and after the 2016 presidential election, according to people in the US and UK with knowledge of the relationship.
In 2024, Farage offered to act as a “bridge” between Trump and the new Labour government, telling reporters that “I might be useful as an interlocutor, unofficially, behind the scenes, to try and help mend some of those fences”.
But people close to Farage said there was no longer regular contact between the men and that Reform had few direct links into the US administration. Trump had instead prioritised forming his own ties with Sir Keir Starmer’s government, they added.
A US administration official told the FT before the outbreak of the conflict with Iran, which has caused tension between Trump and Starmer, that the White House had made significant progress behind the scenes with UK counterparts — particularly former foreign secretary David Lammy and his successor Yvette Cooper — and was reluctant to jeopardise those links.
One person close to Farage speculated that a breakdown in relations between the Reform leader and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who served as head of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency until May last year, may have contributed to a cooling in the relationship.
Farage announced in December 2024 after meeting Musk at Mar-a-Lago that the billionaire was considering making a donation to Reform, but in a surprise move a few weeks later Musk wrote on X that “Farage doesn’t have what it takes” and needed to be replaced as leader.
One UK official said the decline in Farage’s influence in the US appeared gradual and sustained.
It had been noted in London that very few senior US administration figures attended a party in Washington hosted by leading Brexiteers, for which Farage was the guest of honour on the eve of Trump’s second inauguration last year, they said.
Farage himself admitted he did not “make the cut” to attend Trump’s swearing-in from the prestigious rotunda of the Capitol building.
The official said it appeared Trump had actively wanted to expand his links at the highest echelons of British politics when he returned to the White House. In September he became the first foreign leader to be honoured with a second state visit to the UK.
“Trump was so warm to Starmer precisely because he wanted a friend in the UK that wasn’t Farage. Yes, he respected Starmer as a winner in the election, but it was more than that,” the official said.
However, a party in September hosted by GB News to toast the UK media organisation’s arrival in Washington DC, at which Farage was one of the leading guests, was attended by several senior administration officials, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick.
Reform does maintain some direct links into the US administration, most notably a close friendship between the Cambridge theologian James Orr, who was recently made the right-wing populist party’s head of policy, and US vice-president JD Vance.
Reform and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.