Nigel Farage Goes to Washington

“I’ve been coming to this city quite regularly for quite a long time,” Nigel Farage said on Dec. 1, flashing a grin as he sipped coffee in a cafe at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. “Speeches, lunches, dinners with groups of Republicans.” He rolled his eyes. “Not this trip,” he said, laughing. “For the first time in 20 years, I’m a free man.” A tourist approached to request a selfie, which delighted Farage—it’s his thing. Three days after the election, Farage tweeted a shot of himself and Donald Trump roaring with laughter inside Trump’s gold-plated elevator that went viral. Now everyone wanted one.

Farage, who just stepped down as leader of the U.K. Independence Party, is only too happy to oblige. If Trump is the greatest beneficiary of his upset victory, Farage is a close second and may be enjoying it more. Ever since he appeared onstage with Trump at a Mississippi rally in August—“The man behind Brexit!” Trump exulted—Farage has become an unlikely hero to Trump-crazed Republicans. With an instinct for the spotlight as sharp as the president-elect’s, he was in Washington to roam the halls of Congress, dropping in on senators and representatives for celebratory visits, the way Tom Brady might stop by Jimmy Kimmel Live after winning the Super Bowl. “I’m catching up with some people,” Farage said. “And also meeting a few new ones.”