Britain’s Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has attacked Donald Trump’s America First agenda as “not what conservatives do” in an interview this weekend. She also said she wants to “separate President Trump from the United States,” and claimed she likes Kamala Harris and Trump “both equally.”
The Tory leader’s newest globalist talking points against America First came during an interview with Geordie Greig, editor-in-chief of The Independent, in a Saturday interview for the paper’s Talk Show. During the interview, however, she let slip that she did not deviate from Trump on the Iran war. She said she can “understand the justification. Iran is an enemy of this country. We don’t want them getting nuclear weapons.” Badenoch also claimed what Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance “did to Zelensky in the White House was awful… awful.”
Kemi’s Leftward Lurch.
“People ask me who did I prefer, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump? I would say I like them both equally. Make of that what you will,” she said in the interview.
But just over a year ago, she posted a picture of herself and Trump from the State Banquet in London, with the caption: “What a pleasure to meet President Trump at the State Banquet. He gave a wonderful speech on his admiration for our country, reminding us about all the things that put the “Great” in Great Britain!🇬🇧🇺🇸”
Her comments appear to be a reversion to globalist type for Badenoch, who once called the Davos World Economic Forum meeting she attended, “amazing,” and said that “the stereotypes were wrong” about the annual conference.
Asked whether Britain should still have the closest relationship with Trump as president, after she said he deserved to be “thrashed” in the US midterms — “Well, yeah” — Badenoch replied: “So, yes, but I need to say why.”
Same Old Tories.
“He has not been acting in the way that I would consider conservative,” Badenoch claimed, reverting to a 1980s definition of neoliberalism to define her would-be premiership: “Where is the push for free markets and better trade and more enforcement of trade rules, rather than protectionism, America first, the squabbling with allies? That’s not what conservatives do.”
While Badenoch’s platform is pitched as Thatcherite, one of the first moves Thatcher made in government was the passage of the Nationality Act (1981) which ended the precise form of birthright citizenship that handed Badenoch a British passport when she was born under a Labour government. The Nationality Act was “a principal feature of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s election platform,” according to the Associated Press report from 1983.
‘Separate Trump from the U.S.’
“We need to separate President Trump from the United States. The special relationship is with the country,” Badenoch told the left-wing Independent.
She said he came in with an “extraordinary coalition” — Latinos, more Black voters than any other Republican. “And what’s the first thing that he does? Tariffs, and then talking about Greenland and Canada.” Tariffs “are bad for the cost of living. They’re not good.”
Trump’s tariffs have, in fact, generated billions for the U.S., cut trade deficits, established further control of Greenland, and blocked critical adversaries such as China across a number of key national industries. Badenoch’s aversions to such protection of UK industries will likely cause concern for those who believe Britain has been exploited by foreign entities, foreign labour, and outsourcing.
