For a visually prominent and politically resonant photograph: Nigel Farage, the man who loudly proclaims that he will be the next prime minister of the UK, with two of his richest supporters, all imbued with the ardor of his golden hero. Donald Trump.
In crude political terms, this is the meaning that can follow from the talks held by the UK Reform leader, the party’s new treasurer Nick Candy, and Elon Musk at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday, immortalized in a photo shoot by Farage’s media team.
Musk, the world’s richest man, who is spending more than $250m (£200m) of his fortune helping Trump win his presidency, is said to be so fond of Farage – and stunned that he sees him as “woke” by leaving the Labor government – that he can donate $100m to the populist Reform party.
That may or may not happen – and even if not, it remains to be seen how much impact such a collapse will have on the Farage party, which is still lacking in organization and election-winning knowledge.
But this is a photo that arguably sums up where the UK, or at least part of it, is now. It’s Farage’s second year as Trump’s tax collector – in which, Farage hopes, he also ends up winning the election.
For context, it may be helpful to look at another slightly happy photo, taken almost exactly eight years ago when Trump won his first term as president.
Also at the time of the press release, this showed Farage standing next to Trump in front of the gold plate at Trump Tower in New York, surrounded by a group that was very happy. by “the bad boys of Brexit”.
This was a different era and somehow it’s a very different picture from this week. The awkward situation and Trump raises a thumbs up as a photo op is sparked between the indulgent celebrity and a group of excited fanboys.
Farage was already a prominent political figure, fresh from the triumph of the Brexit referendum, but his crowd was a bit more subdued, including Arron Banks, the insurance mogul, and Raheem Kassam, the former Ukip hard-liner who is now scrapping. He lived on the outskirts of Trump’s circus.
Eight years is a clear difference. Farage is no longer a suppliant lurking in the lobby of Trump’s residence, but inside, holding talks with the man who is – at least for now – the return of the president’s most powerful acolyte.
The freer style of Trump’s second term was reflected in his attire. A line outside the gold shot shows six men in dark suits standing next to each other. The Mar-a-Lago snap sees Farage and Candy in the same – although Candy avoids the bond – but Musk, shooting the camera with a curiously plastic half-smile, is dressed in leather fur.
MOSCOW-keepers quickly identified it as a much-seen staple of the billionaire’s wardrobe, made a few years ago by Belstaff, a UK company that began making protective gear for motorcycles in the 1920s, but now offers more casual offerings for £1,000 or so. more
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Perhaps the most surprising element of the new photo is the picture in the background showing a much younger and suspiciously thin-looking Trump basking in the glow of the setting sun, while wearing what looks to British eyes like a white woolen jumper.
This is a visionary, from the 1989 work of the late society portrait painter Ralph Wolfe Cowan, formerly “PalL Beach Van Dyck”, who made a living from his paintings of generally flattering people including the royal family of Monaco, Argentinian dictator Augusto Pinochet. and former First Lady of the Philippines and shoe aficionado Imelda Marcos.
Cowan called his style “romantic realism,” a method described by one critic as making his subjects “20 pounds thinner and 20 years younger.”
The Trump portrait, which shows him in tennis gear and hangs in the Mar-a-Lago library, was originally intentionally left unfinished — one of Cowan’s masterpieces — with Trump’s left hand slightly more sketchy. After much complaint about Trump, who did not understand this, Cowan updated the picture more than a decade later.
Could an updated version of the latest photo – farage show a triumphant election alongside Musk the UK mega-donor? – is expected