Farage, Boris, Truss: Brits on tour in Milwaukee
The British were coming. To Milwaukee. My fellow passenger on the Delta New York/Milwaukee flight to the Republican Convention leant across the aisle. “You’re a Brit. I’m meeting some guy, Boris Johnson. Who is he?”
“A former British Prime Minister. There are quite a few of them around. Boris, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak – and that’s just since Biden beat Trump in 2020. Never mind Tony Blair, who seems to be running the country again.”
“Holy sh*t! ‘How did you Brits screw that up?”
“Voters don’t elect Prime Ministers. MPs and political parties do that.”
“Holy sheet! And you lecture us that our democracy is under threat”.
Fellow Passenger, attending something called the MKE Policy Summit, not the Convention proper, had spotted my University Club of New York canvas carry on. Turned out we are fellow members.
He runs a hedge fund in Manhattan and is a big Grand Old Party (GOP) donor. For some reason that escaped both of us, he had been invited to an exclusive reception to meet Bojo. Subsequently, a stock “thumbs up” photo of Bojo and Trump filtered into social media.
I ventured the thought that if he had donated more, Fellow Passenger may have ducked the date. “Think yourself lucky, it might have been Nigel Farage.”
“Who’s he?”
In the wake of the assassination attempt Farage, the newly minted Reform MP for Clacton, has been playing the role of the annoying, distant relative who, on hearing bad family news from afar, insists on turning up to help. Invited or not. “I will go and see my friend”.
Trump seems to recall him only as “The Brexit guy”. Shaky on the name. Farage hangs onto his first chance Trump encounter at the Cleveland Convention in 2016 and his post-election meeting with President Trump in the Trump Tower gold elevator, like a credibility blanket.
According to the Reform leader, after last week’s shooting, he and the 45th President have a “shared experience’”. Whether Trump agrees that being pranked by an election campaign milkshake and needing your suit cleaned approaches equivalence with a high velocity bullet whizzing through your right ear, drawing copious quantities of blood remains unclear.
Fellow Passenger was a guest, not of the Republican National Committee, which organises the political show, but a parallel organisation, MKE Host Committee. MKE is the code for Milwaukee Airport.
According to its separate website, “The Host Committee is a nonpartisan entity created to work with the City of Milwaukee in preparing for and successfully producing the Republican National Committee (RNC) convention. As part of its responsibilities, the Committee is responsible for signing the contracts, securing the venues, and working with the local leaders to ensure the convention has everything it needs to succeed in its “host” city, Milwaukee”.
It is a shrewd GOP strategy to separate the politics from the business boost that an 18,000 strong four-day convention brings to the host city. An estimated $200m in revenue. Milwaukee is hardly natural Republican territory. Trump lost the city by 59 points in 2020.
The state of Wisconsin is another matter. A swinger. On 30 May, Biden led Trump 45.5 per cent to 44.3 per cent. Post the infamous debate debacle on 27 June, that shifted to 46.9 per cent to 48.5 per cent. As of today, Trump is maintaining a one per cent lead. Fostering goodwill with city authorities and local businesses is important if that lead is to be maintained.
MKE’s programme for donors is centred on the downtown Pfister Hotel, where Trump is staying. The Pfister is an elegant monument to Milwaukee’s 19th century economic heyday. Opened in 1893, it was the first $1m hotel in the US, boasting electricity, fireproofing, and silent running hydraulic lifts.
Hosting Committees have clearly encountered unusual security challenges at past conventions. On the banned list of items that may not be brought to its proceedings are “toasters” and “broomsticks”.
This week, a conversation with Liz Truss was scheduled. Probably accounts for the broomstick ban. Fellow Passenger risks meeting more yesterday Brits on his Milwaukee “thank you” sejour than tomorrow Americans. I shall ask him what he thinks of his encounter.
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