JACKSON, Miss.- After a long day at the RNC Brexit proponent Nigel Farage hit the hotel bar where he met Gov. Phil Bryant’s personal aid, John Bartley Boykin.
Boykin and Farage struck up a conversation and no one could have expected that just a month later Nigel Farage would be sitting in on a statewide talk show with Supertalk and preparing to speak at Donald Trump’s August Rally.
After the casual conversation over drinks at nearly 5:00 a.m., the next day Farage received a formal invite from Bryant’s office to visit Mississippi and speak about Brexit.
Brexit is short for British Exit, which is referring to a vote Britain held to withdraw from the European Union.
Now a British writer and associate of Farage, Arron Banks has released a book, “The Bad Boys of Brexit,” in which he credits Gov. Bryant and his office for orchestrating this coincidental visit to coincide with a Trump rally in Jackson.
Brexit was often referred to in Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency. He himself called his platform, Brexit Plus.
Banks calls it “one of the most extraordinary political journeys in Farage’s long career of extraordinary political journeys.”
On Aug. 23, Farage headed to Mississippi and when he arrived in Mississippi he was scheduled for an interview on Supertalk Mississippi radio with J.T. Williamson just hours before a private fundraising dinner in Jackson for the Trump campaign.
He was scheduled to speak at the private dinner with donors but was not aware that he would much such an impression on the now President Elect that he would be asked to speak at the rally that evening.
“You know I’ve come as a guest of the Governor of Mississippi to speak about Brexit. I didn’t actually know, until this morning, that it was going to turn into this,” said Farage to News Mississippi after the rally.
However, his team knew all along. According to the book, the Governor asked Nigel after a long day of traveling and socializing to participate in the rally the next night. While Nigel was surprised, Banks claimed: “we bounced him into it. (We had) been in cahoots with the governor’s team and had known about the second invitation all along.”
Banks said it was not until after the radio interview that Farage was questioned by Trump’s campaign heads to discuss what would be said on stage that night.
While on the Supertalk show Farage said he was in the state by invitation from the Governor to support the Trump campaign, but not to tell Americans who to vote for.
Trump and Farage officially met in a holding room at the convention center before the private dinner.
“(Trump) strode over and gave Farage a bear hug, congratulating him on ‘a great job winning Brexit,'” Banks wrote in his book. He continued to say that Trump was so pleased with Farage’s speech at the dinner that he asked his staff to rearrange the rally’s schedule so that the candidate himself could introduce Farage onstage.
The Brexit leader spoke for six minutes with multiple comparisons between Trump’s campaign and Brexit, outlining what the American people needed to do in order to see change.
