'Dirty' Trump deserved to be thrashed in the US midterms, says Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch says Donald Trump ‘deserved to be thrashed’ in the US elections and has denounced his ‘dirty’ style of politics.
In a sweeping attack on the American President’s record she criticised him over the Iran War, for threatening Canada and Greenland, imposing swingeing tariffs and “squabbling with allies” like the UK.
Trump’s heavy defeat in the US mid term elections was “entirely self inflicted”, she told The Independent Editor-in-Chief Geordie Greig.
Controversially, Badenoch said she would have been content if Trump had never won a second term in the White House and his Democrat opponent, Left winger Kamala Harris had become President in 2024 instead.
In the wide-ranging exclusive interview for The Talk Show, Badenoch also savaged Tory predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss for their “mistakes” in government.
She said Andy Burnham was more “fun” than Keir Starmer, but behind the “charm” he was “dangerous.”
She called Nigel Farage’s Reform Party “bonkers” and ruled out serving in a Conservative-Reform Coalition led by him.
But she conceded that before his dip in popularity, Farage had made an “emotional connection” with voters that the Tories had lost until she became leader.
Badenoch’s outspoken condemnation of Trump’s policies and personality may come as a surprise, especially to Tory supporters, some of whom urged her to copy him after he won power.
Asked if he deserved to be thrashed, she did not hesitate: “Yeah. He has not been acting in the way that I would consider conservative. Where is the push for free markets and better trade… rather than protectionism, America first, the squabbling with allies? That’s not what conservatives do.
“Trump is very charming in person, but you see the way that he talks about journalists, about individuals. It doesn’t meet the standards a statesman should meet – always wanting to get dirty in terms of insults and and so on.
“When he was rude about Keir Starmer… I didn’t like that at all. What they did to President Zelensky in the White House was awful.”
Trump had won power “with an extraordinary coalition of Latinos, more Black voters than any other Republican” – and wasted it.
“What’s the first thing he does? Tariffs, and then talking about Greenland and Canada. A lot of people were wondering, ‘what are you doing?’”
