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White House Correspondent
Nigel Farage has declared last night’s big US presidential debate “a score draw” after his friend Donald Trump was mocked for his claims about immigrants in the US eating domestic pets.
The muted response from the Reform UK leader, who has been the leading cheerleader for Mr Trump in Britain, comes amid disquiet among many supporters of the former president, who believe the debate was actually won by Kamala Harris.
Former Tory prime minister Liz Truss has also been an outspoken supporter of the Republican candidate against Vice President Harris – but she has been unwilling to comment on the debate, during which Trump had to be fact-checked multiple times.
A source close to Ms Truss said: “She is [still supporting Trump] but don’t expect her to say anything new right now.”
Boris Johnson, who has become another cheerleader for Mr Trump in the UK, remained silent today on the former president’s debate performance.
Mr Farage’s less than enthusiastic response was a contrast to Mr Trump’s claim that it was his “best debate ever”.
As soon as the debate wrapped up on Tuesday night, the Republican presidential nominee made the rare, unusual decision to roam the spin room floor, where he told reporters: “It was my best debate ever, I think”.
Asked why he had entered the room instead of letting the performance speak for itself, Mr Trump responded: “Well, I think it did… But people said would I come here, and I made an obligation to a couple of people that I’m going to do their show, but… I thought it was a great night.”
In the immediate aftermath of the debate, Mr Trump was dealt a blow when singer Taylor Swift came out in support of Harris.
But from the start he appeared caught off guard when Vice President Harris marched over to shake his hand and he never really seemed to be on top of his game.
Throughout, she goaded him on his “tedious rallies”, which she claimed people left early, and challenged him on issues like abortion and the economy.
The highly anticipated prime-time matchup in Philadelphia on ABC could end up being the only debate in the contest, before the election on 5 November.
The former president took the opportunity to repeat discredited claims about immigrants stealing and eating pets, and falsely state that abortion patients are killing their children after they are born, as well as steaming over Harris’s accusations that his supporters are leaving his long-winded rallies “exhausted and bored”.
He repeatedly tried to turn the conversation to immigration, claiming that immigrants are “taking over buildings … violently”, and blurting out at one point that Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison”.
Haitian immigrants in Ohio are “eating the dogs”, he claimed, despite police statement denying that there had been any such reports.
“The people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Mr Trump said. “They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Harris, laughing and shaking her head in disbelief, appeared to say: “This is unbelievable.”
“Talk about extreme,” she said.
She predicted at the start that Mr Trump would turn to immigration, a topic she said he wields against his supporters to scare them into voting for him.
