Nigel Farage dined with Donald Trump at one of the president’s hotel restaurants on Saturday night - after the US President gave the pool media the slip, again.
The former UKIP leader posted a photo on Twitter showing him gleefully sitting at the dinner table with the president, his daughter Ivanka and her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, as well as the Florida Governor, Rick Scott. The caption read: “Dinner with The Donald.”
Onlookers at the Trump International Hotel in Washington said space at the table had been made for Farage at short notice.
Journalist Benny Johnson, at the restaurant ahead of Trump's arrival, tweeted: “Farage was not invited to this dinner. Squeezed in at last second.”
Johnson said that the restaurant was “thrown into minor chaos” before Trump’s arrival.
Farage was waiting in the lobby as the president arrived, Johnson noted, where Trump stopped briefly to speak with him, seemingly inviting him to dinner on the spot.
Farage was the first foreign politician to meet with the US President following his election, just before Trump disregarded Sir Kim Darroch and suggested Farage should be Britain’s ambassador for the US.
Earlier in the day, Farage backed the president’s recent dismissals of mainstream media.
“What they don’t realise is they’re losing viewers, they are losing listeners, they are losing this battle big time and I’m pleased the president is not afraid to stand up to them,” Farage said on Fox News.
Earlier in the week, Farage spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, addressing Brexit and Trump’s election and how it had sparked a “great global revolution”.
“Just as Brexit becomes more popular by the day, President Trump will become more popular in America by the day,” he said.
