Donald Trump suggests Britain appoint Brexit leader Nigel Farage as ambassador
Some Republicans were angry that President Obama moved a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and replaced it with a bust of Martin Luther King Jr., but on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump took that a step further, suggesting the removal of Britain's actual living ambassador to the United States, Sir Kim Darroch, and replacing him with Nigel Farage, the acting leader of Britain's U.K. Independence Party (UKIP).
Farage and Trump discussed more than Churchill at their meeting last week. According to Britain's Sunday Express and The New York Times, Trump urged Farage and his companions to push for an end to wind farms in Scotland. Trump "did not say he hated wind farms as a concept; he just did not like them spoiling the views," British media consultant Andy Wigmore, who was at the meeting, told The New York Times. After the meeting, Wigmore and Brexit financier Arron Banks decided they will be "campaigning against wind farms in England, Scotland, and Wales," Wigmore said, something they opposed already though Trump "spurred us in and we will be going for it."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Trump fought to stop Scotland from building a wind farm off the coast of one of his golf courses, in Aberdeenshire, all the way up to Britain's highest court, which unanimously ruled against him last December. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks at first said that Trump never raised the issue of wind farms; when The Times noted that Wigmore described the conversation in detail and on the record, she declined to comment.
-
Political cartoons for February 20Cartoons Friday’s political cartoons include just the ice, winter games, and more
-
Sepsis ‘breakthrough’: the world’s first targeted treatment?The Explainer New drug could reverse effects of sepsis, rather than trying to treat infection with antibiotics
-
James Van Der Beek obituary: fresh-faced Dawson’s Creek starIn The Spotlight Van Der Beek fronted one of the most successful teen dramas of the 90s – but his Dawson fame proved a double-edged sword
-
NIH director Bhattacharya tapped as acting CDC headSpeed Read Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of the CDC’s Covid-19 response, will now lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-
Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in GenevaSpeed Read Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held negotiations aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Pentagon spokesperson forced out as DHS’s resignsSpeed Read Senior military adviser Col. David Butler was fired by Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is resigning
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
