Updated | Last week, Donald Trump puzzled the British public with a mysterious tweet: " T hey will soon be calling me MR. BREXIT!" he wrote on Thursday. Nobody had any idea what he meant.
But former UKIP leader Nigel Farage could have given people some clues. Farage says he is set to appear at a rally for the Republican presidential nominee in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday night, to tell supporters about lessons they can learn from Brexit.
Farage told local Mississippi radio on Wednesday that, "I read the press and I see all these things about Trump supporters, they're old, they're uneducated, they're backward…and I just think the parallels [with the U.K.'s Brexit vote] are so unbelievably strong."
And he said he would tell Trump's supporters: "Don't sit around, don't just sort of go to the local bar and tell each other how bad Hillary is; if you want to change things, you've got to get your walking boots on."
Of his campaign for Brexit, he is to tell the crowd that, "I've been part of a political revolution in the United Kingdom."
The British establishment, Farage said, "all said it couldn't happen…we were wasting our time, we were whistling in the wind." But, he continued, "With our well-aimed stone, like David, we've hit that Goliath, we've knocked him over."
He said he had been invited to the state by Governor Phil Bryant, whom he had met by "coincidence" when attending the Republican National Convention. He said his visit just happened to coincide with a Trump campaign visit.
Farage will not directly endorse Trump. But he said on radio: "Hillary Clinton is the establishment, status quo candidate. If you're happy with life then Hillary is the candidate for you.
"If you think things need shaking up and changing…then Trump is the candidate with whom things will change."
And he gave Trump some advice, saying that the Republican, "needs to stick to his key messages…Where it starts to go wrong for him is when he starts to veer off into other directions."
"Let the media fight you on your big themes but don't let them fight you on a whole number of fronts simultaneously," Farage added.
Trump has endorsed Britain's decision to leave the EU, saying during a visit to Scotland the day after the vote that it was a "great thing."
This article was amended to correct the location of the Trump rally. It is held in Jackson, not Jacksonville.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Josh is a staff writer covering Europe, including politics, policy, immigration and more.
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