Fact check: Nigel Farage praised Donald Trump for having ‘courage and guts’
A clip of the Reform UK politician shows his opinion of the US president rather than his thoughts on former EDL leader Tommy Robinson.
A video posted on the social media platform TikTok shows a photograph of political activist Tommy Robinson alongside footage of Nigel Farage. In the video, the Reform UK leader says: “Because I respect him for his courage. The guy has got guts, the guy’s got balls – he stands up and fights for the right values.”
Evaluation
Despite the placement of the image suggesting Nigel Farage’s comments were about Tommy Robinson, he was instead praising Donald Trump in the footage taken from an interview conducted in October 2024. Earlier this year, Mr Farage publicly criticised Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.
The facts
Nigel Farage was interviewed by The Spectator in October for the news magazine’s podcast focusing on American politics. In video footage of the conversation posted to YouTube, Mr Farage can be heard to say: “I’ve never tried to make a quick buck off the back of knowing Donald Trump or anything like that. I genuinely haven’t and I never ever will – because I respect him for his courage. The guy has got guts, the guy’s got balls – he stands up and fights for the right values both in America and for western values and against our potential enemies.”
This is the footage used in the TikTok post, which presents a truncated version of Mr Farage’s statement without the context linking his words to the incoming US president.
When challenged on whether the post had been made with artificial intelligence tools, the user who uploaded the video replied and confirmed the origin of the clip. He wrote: “I used the clip from when he was talking about Trump one day hopefully he will talk about Tommy like this.”
Mr Farage has been publicly critical of Robinson’s activities, largely involving protests against Muslims and Islam in the UK. Robinson was a co-founder of the now-defunct right-wing activist group the English Defence League.
In 2018, Mr Farage claimed the “fixation” Ukip – the political party he twice led – had with Robinson and the English Defence League had driven him away.
Earlier this year, Robinson accused Mr Farage of “throwing me under the bus” and “lying” while “kicking people out of Reform for standing with” his supporters.
