Nigel Farage says Trump’s racist attack on Democratic congresswomen was ‘genius’

‘You realise, 48 hours on, it was genius’, says Brexit Party leader, heaping praise on president’s ‘go home’ comments

Nigel Farage has enthusiastically praised Donald Trump’s “go back” comments, directed at four congresswomen of colour.

The US president’s remarks were widely condemned as racist after he told Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, to return to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came”.

All of the Democrats, known as the Squad, are American citizens. Three of the four were born in the country.

Ms Omar, the fourth, arrived in the US as a child refugee.

The president described the women as people”who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world”.

“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came?” he asked.

Despite the significant controversy generated by the remarks, Mr Farage said the comments were shrewd.

“I thought, ‘Dear, oh dear, oh dear’. You realise, 48 hours on, it was genius because what’s happened is the Democrats gather round the Squad, which allows him to say, ‘Oh look, the Squad are the centre of the Democratic Party’,” he said.

“He’s remarkably good at what he does,” Mr Farage added, in an interview with The Times.

“He does things his way. But he is a remarkably effective operator.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had condemned Mr Trump’s remarks as “racist” at the time, challenging Boris Johnson to do so too during the Conservative leadership contest.

Mr Johnson, now the prime minister, refused to, but did describe the comments as “totally unacceptable”.

Former Ukip leader Mr Farage has also found himself mired in race-related controversy at times in the past.

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In May 2014, he was accused of a making a “racial slur” against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them.

Later that year, he used an interview with radio station LBC to defend a Ukip candidate who had used the word “ch**ky” to describe a Chinese person.

“If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you’re going for?” Mr Farage asked presenter Nick Ferarri.

Mr Ferarri responded by saying he “honestly would not” use the phrase in such a context.

“A lot would,” Mr Farage replied.