Farage meets Trump in Oval Office but faces bruising Washington hearing

Nigel Farage in White House/ X @Nigel_Farage

Farage meets Trump in the Oval Office but faces a bruising Washington hearing

Nigel Farage has capped off a trip to Washington with a photo opportunity alongside Donald Trump in the Oval Office, but not before clashing with Democrats during a fiery congressional hearing on free speech.

The Reform UK leader appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, invited by Republicans keen to spotlight concerns about the UK’s Online Safety Act and similar European rules. Farage told lawmakers Britain had “become North Korea” when it came to free expression, a comparison that drew sharp rebukes.

Democrats on the panel pressed Farage on his record, accusing him of hypocrisy. Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin mocked his absence from Prime Minister’s Questions, saying: “If he’s serious, he should be making this case in Parliament today, not here in Congress.”

Raskin went further, branding Farage a “Putin-loving free speech impostor and Trump sycophant,” and warning UK voters not to be swayed by his rhetoric. Other Democrats questioned why journalists from critical outlets had been barred from Reform UK events, challenging his claim to defend open debate.

Farage seized on the recent arrest of Graham Linehan at Heathrow to argue that UK laws are “authoritarian.” But critics dismissed the comparison with North Korea as headline-chasing.

Still, the Reform leader managed the optics he sought: a meeting and a smiling photograph with Trump, who has emerged as a key ally in his transatlantic campaign against regulating online speech.

Back home, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey was quick to pounce. “Farage has gone to the US to tell them Britain is ‘awful.’ If you don’t like it here, Nigel, maybe don’t catch a return flight,” he wrote on X.

For Farage, the Washington trip offered both a victory — face time with the former president — and a bruising reminder that in America’s halls of power, he can be challenged as fiercely as at home.