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LONDON — Nigel Farage’s new right-wing party Reform UK is making overtures to Donald Trump’s potential presidential rival Ron DeSantis as the Florida governor flies into Britain for high-level talks.
DeSantis, who is expected to announce his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential candidacy in the coming weeks, will hold meetings with senior British ministers in London on Friday as a part of a four-country “trade mission” to promote Florida on the world stage.
But also chasing a meet-up will be key allies of Farage, who is honorary president of Reform UK and who first met DeSantis at last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida.
The pair have spoken about U.S. and European politics, despite Farage’s previous long-standing alliance with DeSantis’ arch-rival Donald Trump, who remains the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice confirmed to POLITICO he was “working on” cultivating links with the Florida governor, who has become a popular figure among some British conservatives as a seemingly less chaotic right-wing alternative to Trump.
“He’s shown himself to be a courageous, bold leader and that’s very interesting. For me, I think he is actually the one that the Democrats fear,” Tice said.
“DeSantis doesn’t muck about — he just gets stuff done and tells it as it is, which is very contrary to what the Washington elite want him to say.”
‘Big supporter of Brexit’
DeSantis will meet with British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch for talks in London on Friday.
The 44-year-old is currently running second to Trump in polling among Republican primary voters, who will make their decision on a presidential candidate early next year.
DeSantis attracted praise from high-profile Republicans for winning a landslide re-election victory last year in what is traditionally a swing state, with many talking him up as the future — or DeFuture as Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post wrote — of the Republican Party.
Trump has already begun a vicious campaign to discredit the controversial governor — who has stirred anger among America’s liberals for his “anti-woke” and anti-COVID lockdown policies — by calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious” and accusing him of being a part of a “globalist” elite.
The governor said in an interview with The Times last month that he was a “big supporter of Brexit,” but that Britain’s ruling Conservative Party “hasn’t been as aggressive at fulfilling that vision as they should have been.”
Farage in turn showered praise on the governor via his GB News show, saying “it seems to me that Ron DeSantis very much has his finger on the pulse of U.K. politics.”
An ally of Farage told POLITICO that the Brexiteer highly rates DeSantis, but that he “could damage himself in a brutal fight against Trump.”
“Nigel thinks that he will be American president at some point and that he’s done a great job in Florida,” the ally said. Farage himself declined to comment for this article.
British TV presenter Piers Morgan, another former friend of Trump, interviewed DeSantis for TalkTV last month. He too has been quick to talk up the governor as the best possible candidate for the Republicans, despite his past alliance with Trump.
Morgan told a Fox News programme that the Republican Party has a “straightforward choice.” He said: “Do you want more drama and chaos and baggage, or do you want someone who is fresh, young, nearly half Trump’s age, who doesn’t have the baggage and believes in doing government a different way?”
A London-based lobbyist with ties to the DeSantis camp said many British political figures will be trying to cozy up to the Florida governor in the lead up to his likely presidential run.
“It’s peak season for grifters,” they said. “A lot of people connected to the Republican Party will try to ride both horses.”
They also said that DeSantis would “be smart” to try to raise money from British expats living in America — a path that was followed by Trump in 2016 and by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.
Make America … Florida?
The U.K. will be the final stop on DeSantis’ four-country trade mission, following visits to Japan, South Korea and Israel.
A DeSantis spokesperson said the trip would “build on economic relationships Florida has with each country,” but it is being seen by media pundits as a way for the governor to look presidential on the global stage.
He is set to meet with Badenoch and then Cleverly tomorrow in separate bilateral meetings.
DeSantis will also attend a business roundtable with Badenoch, a rising star in her own party and the bookmakers’ favorite to become next Conservative leader, being organized by the BritishAmericanBusiness lobby group.
British ministers will be eager to know the governor’s views on international trade, given U.S. President Joe Biden — who officially launched his own re-election campaign this week — refused to continue the post-Brexit U.K.-U.S. trade talks that began under the Trump administration.
Leslie Vinjamuri, U.S. expert at the Chatham House think tank in London, said DeSantis will want the trip to show economic competence to a wider American audience.
“It makes complete sense as a governor and a presidential hopeful that he would demonstrate his economic credentials. America is about the land of the free and the opportunity to succeed — and getting rich,” she said.
“Having that very strong relationship and connectivity to the U.K. plays extremely well in the U.S. — it certainly plays well in Florida.”
DeSantis’ view of the Russo-Ukraine war will also be scrutinized if and when he announces his presidential run, after he recently called the conflict a mere “territorial dispute.”
The governor swiftly tried to walk back those comments following a bitter backlash — but also told Nikkei Asia this week that European countries must do far more to help Ukraine.
“The Europeans really need to do more. I mean, this is their continent,” he said.
