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HUGO RIFKIND

Trump flounders in a world of strong women

The ‘locker-room banter’ of the Republican candidate and his Ukip ally looks outdated in our new political era

The Times

I love the subtext of Nigel Farage’s new role as the man British television news calls upon to explain Donald Trump to Britain. “Now, Nigel,” the baffled presenter always seems to be saying, “this all seems bigoted and ghastly to people like me, but so do you. So what the hell is going on?”

What Farage sees in Trump is what Trump wants people to see in Trump, and the polls suggest Farage is not alone. “I thought he was like a big silverback gorilla prowling the studio,” Ukip’s interim leader said of Sunday night’s TV debate. “He dominated Hillary Clinton. She was very much on the back foot.”

In most respects, Trump doesn’t make a convincing silverback. In a bar-room brawl, squared up against