By Nigel Farage for Daily Mail:
Since I announced that I was going to stand aside as Ukip leader in the wake of the successful Brexit campaign, I’ve had more time to do other things.
This included a trip to Cleveland for the Republican Convention and the adoption of Donald J. Trump as their Presidential candidate.
I was astonished that everybody I met wanted to talk about Brexit – not just the delegates to the convention but ordinary people, including a group of US Navy veterans who told me we should have done it years ago.
There was a chance meeting, in a bar of course, with the delegation from Mississippi.
They were wildly enthusiastic Brexiteers and told me that their State Governor Phil Bryant was delighted with the result and would love me to visit.
So in what I thought would be the quiet days of August, I was happy to accept their invitation.
The plan was simple: I would speak at a dinner hosted by the Governor to speak about the Brexit campaign and to draw parallels with voters in America, who are looking for many of the same things.
It was not until I arrived and was having dinner at the magnificent Governor’s Mansion in Jackson that I was told that on the following evening there would be a rally at which up to 15,000 people would come to hear Trump.
Governor Bryant said he would like me to speak. I could scarcely believe it as I knew that no UK politician had ever spoken at a Republican election rally.
The Trump campaign has been highly controversial. Some of his comments have not looked good and left him open to accusations of extremism.
At times he has appeared quite aggressive on the platform. I was curious: what would the man be like in person?
We met at a private gathering of major Mississippi donors to his campaign. I was surprised, even slightly overwhelmed, by the warmth of his welcome and his huge support for Brexit.
Read Nigel Farage’s full story at Daily Mail
