EXCLUSIVE: From MAGA to MEGA?

A FASCINATING discussion with MAGA and Farage insider Raheem Kassam

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I’ve just returned from the Reform UK conference in Birmingham, where I gave a speech and met countless people, including many of you, our Substack readers! Which was really, really great! You can watch my speech over on the Facebook page.

I’ll be writing to you more fully tomorrow, with my detailed thoughts about the conference, Reform’s growth, the latest defections from the Tories, the implosion of Labour, and the possibility of an earlier-than-expected general election.

But before we get into all that, I just wanted to say one thing and share something exclusive with you.

What struck me at Reform’s conference is just how quickly the conversation is now moving. People are no longer talking about the meteoric rise of Reform; they’re talking almost exclusively about how the party can ready for government.

What are its policy priorities? Who will be in a Reform cabinet? What will be Reform’s timetable for government? How will it manage a hostile state? And many more questions that we have already been exploring right here.

And, in turn, because of this, there is considerable interest in exploring the experience of, and learning lessons from, the rise of Donald Trump and MAGA in America, and whether these can be applied to what some call MEGA (Make Europe Great Again).

The central question is this:

How can a Reform government, or a Reform-led government, look a lot more like Trump 2, which is getting things done, as opposed to Trump 1, which spent much of its time struggling with internal resistance from the State?

Which is why, today, I wanted to share an exclusive discussion I had with one person who spans BOTH the MAGA realignment in America, and the Nigel Farage/Reform realignment here in the UK —Raheem Kassam.

I first met Raheem Kassam more than a decade ago, when he was personal advisor to Nigel Farage, in the run up to the 2015 election, which saw Farage’s earlier UK Independence Party (UKIP) poll millions of votes and help force the Brexit vote.

I actually wrote a couple of books on that moment in British politics, tracking the electoral rise of UKIP and then the party’s campaign of 2015, all of which I now see as a trailer to Reform’s much larger revolt that is now going mainstream, today.

Raheem then moved stateside, where he became deeply connected with the MAGA movement, and continues to advise key players, becoming something of a conduit between Farage and Trump. A restaurant he co-owns, Butterworth’s, in Washington, has become a key location for national conservatives around the globe.

Which is why I wanted to talk to him and ask him about what he has observed on this unique political journey, which includes both helping the rise of MAGA and helping the earlier rise of Nigel Farage.

We get into everything —where things went right and wrong for MAGA, what Farage learned from earlier campaigns, how he thinks the British State will work to try and shut down Reform, and lots more …

Here’s Raheem Kassam and I discussing what Reform can learn from Trump 1:

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And here’s us discussing Reform’s potential plan to deal with the UK deep state:

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Our paying subscribers who make our work possible can watch the full discussion below. These discussions are all part of our plan to not only magnify the newsletter but get well ahead of the national debate with key insiders and experts. If you’re not yet with us then now is a good time to upgrade as we track, in detail, this growing revolt against the establishment …