From what I learned as the UK’s ambassador to the US, he’s a pragmatist. But relations could be derailed by a no-deal Brexit
A few days after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, I called on his campaign director, Steve Bannon, in his Washington townhouse near the Capitol. Bannon was then at the height of his powers: the self-proclaimed architect of Trump’s triumph, chief strategist and senior counsellor to the incoming president, the man always “in the room”.
We did the business quickly: getting Bannon’s support for a Theresa May visit to Washington a week after inauguration. To spin out the meeting, I asked him about rumours of his links to some of Europe’s far-right parties: the Front National, Alternative für Deutschland, Lega Nord. Bannon feigned surprise at the question: “of course” he was talking to them. They were part of the great populist wave that was sweeping over western democracies, capitalising on the complacency and corruption of ruling elites, and already cresting with Brexit and Trump’s election. Next stop would be a victory for the Front National in the French elections in May 2017.
