Oxon Hill, Md. — Key Brexit figure Nigel Farage said Friday President Trump was right to pursue his national border emergency, despite pressure from Senate Republicans to reverse course.
“Well, I think actually the whole question of borders and security is something that is very upper most in minds of ordinary people, but very often played down amongst the political class. And I think Trump is right to make an issue of this, absolutely I do,” Farage told the Washington Examiner at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Farage, a former United Kingdom Independence Party leader and current Member of the European Parliament, has been outspoken about the need to curb migration in his home country.
When pressed on the legality and constitutionality of Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency so he can divert funds from the Department of Defense to his southern border wall project, Farage said onlookers needed to “see where this finishes up.”
“He clearly was elected with a very serious mandate to do this and clearly, as a result of the midterms, he’s been frustrated,” Farage said. “You know, is he right to say there’s an emergency, is your question really. I think the fact is there’s been an emergency there for a very long time.”
A joint resolution revoking the emergency passed the House 245-182 this week with the help of 13 Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would vote on the measure by mid-March.
Farage on Friday also downplayed the possibility of a Trump effect on a Brexit vote. The British Parliament has yet to ratify the terms of a treaty withdrawing the U.K. from the European Union.
“Well, obviously the administration are very pro-Brexit, the administration are very pro-British, unlike the previous one,” he said. “The administration would like to have a good bilateral relationship between the two of us, and on the current Brexit course that isn’t going to happen for many, many years to come.”
