Liz Truss and her bid to woo the American far-right

Liz Truss is rebranding herself in a bid to relaunch her stalled political career over in the US. 

Following her stint as Britain's shortest-serving prime minister, the former Lib Dem-turned-centrist Tory is "plotting a new course back to relevance as a darling of the American far-right and as the bridge in a transatlantic conservative movement" said the Daily Mail's US political reporter Bob Crilly.

Since leaving No. 10 in October 2022,  Truss has doubled down on her free-market policies and "worked tirelessly to build ties with US conservatives, including key Members of Congress", said Nile Gardiner, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher, in The Telegraph. Truss is "widely admired in conservative circles" as "one of the few British politicians who really understand the United States and the direction America's conservative movement is taking".

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'Martyr of the Conservative cause'

Following her year in the "political wilderness", said Rachel Cunliffe in The New Statesman, Truss is now "ubiquitous". An appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last week provided the latest opportunity for the former Tory leader to "try out the persona she has adopted since her enforced departure from Downing Street: the martyr of the Conservative cause".

The annual event has "long been one of the most influential conservative gatherings in the world", said Crilly in the Mail, and is now a "showcase for Donald Trump's Maga movement".

Making her CPAC debut alongside former Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Truss "positioned herself as a fierce defender of history against the mores of the left", said The New Statesman's Matt McDonald – and "then proceeded to retell her own". Rehashing the platform she stood on in the Tory leadership contest, Truss portrayed herself  as the "populist conduit for the policies of her party's base" and claimed the "deep state" brought down her her tax-cutting plans. 

Referencing the title of her upcoming book, Truss warned that there were only "10 years left to save the West". She derided "wokenomics," Joe Biden and "the usual suspects" in the media and corporate world who allegedly undermined her as PM. And she ended with a call for Americans to elect Republicans "who aren't going to cave into the establishment" and are willing to be unpopular with elites, even if it means "they don't get invited to any dinner parties".

'Differences with her new audience'

Whether Truss's US bid to "remake herself as a right-wing celebrity will succeed is anyone’s guess", said The Independent's White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg. Her CPAC debut appears to be part of a "new offensive" to gain "new allies in the populist, antidemocratic milieu inhabited by Trump, Farage, and other authoritarian-friendly gadflies such as ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon".

Yet while her focus on the "enemies within" might have come straight from the Trump playbook, said Stephen Bush in the Financial Times, there are "lots of reasons" why Truss might not want to "explicitly endorse" the former president. She knows "full well" that it is "hard" to "reconcile" her hawkish positions on foreign policy, particularly her support for Ukraine, with Trump's stances. 

Her foreign policy views "might be a harder sell to the American right, which is held in Trump's isolationist grip", agreed Crilly in the Mail. And she faces other "potential differences with her new audience", including her rejection of the widespread belief amongst Maga supporters that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Little wonder that her CPAC appearance was met with a mixture of confusion and scepticism, said Jack Montgomery in The National Pulse. Her support for action against climate change and backing for "woke" policies while in government show that Truss "wasn’t ousted by the deep state", he wrote. "She is the deep state."