Swenson also revealed that many youngsters in the U.K. were desperate for a Donald Trump-like figure, like Nigel Farage, to serve as prime minister. (Image: Getty Images)
The chairman of Republicans Overseas UK has revealed that support for the MAGA movement in Europe is surging, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week has played a significant role.
In an interview with Daily Express US, Greg Swenson stated from his Mayfair office that the conservative icon’s death “turbocharged” the movement. “Without a doubt. It is exponentially [growing]. After the Charlie Kirk assassination last week, that kind of turbocharged it,” he said.
Swenson pointed out that even without the tragic loss of Kirk, “the movement was growing anyway.” The news emerges as Trump designates Antifa a ‘major terrorist group’ after Charlie Kirk shooting.
He continued, “So I mean, if you look at the polls, even before Charlie, the parties of the kind of new populist, for lack of a better word, right-wing parties are all polling, leading in the polls.”
The Long Island native remembered that Kirk had penned an article in May titled ‘The Revolution is Coming to the U.K.’ for the Spectator, a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. “And I really think it is,” he added, reports the Express US.
Swenson, the founding Partner of merchant banking firm Brigg Macadam, relocated to the U.K. around a decade ago – and shares his encounters with numerous “closet” conservatives intrigued by Donald Trump‘s MAGA movement.
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He says there are many “closet people here that voted for him, or if they weren’t American citizens, they supported him, and that was good,” Swenson disclosed how his wife even initiated a conservative women’s group with a tongue-in-cheek nickname.
“My wife started a conservative women’s group with a few other women and they called themselves the deplorables, which I thought was pretty funny,” he said. “But they’re all like these super-educated, did Harvard, Ivy League, worked at Goldman, overachiever women.”
Swenson suggests that Trump’s return to the White House has stirred up fervour in a small section of Europe, but it’s more about “it’s more of the ills in society right now.”
He further added that many people embraced the MAGA movement because it was “kind of a rejection of politics as usual and government as usual,” particularly Biden’s Democratic Party which focused on areas he considers unpopular, such as climate change.
Tributes have poured in for Kirk across the world (Image: Getty)
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Swenson also revealed that many young people in the U.K. are yearning for a Trump-like figure to serve as prime minister.
“Without a doubt,” he said. “I get stopped all the time by people who would say right after the election, ‘Gosh, I wish we could have that here.'”
He then went onto discuss the credentials of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, a long-time Trump ally, whose right-wing party is rapidly gaining support throughout the UK.
“They’re going to get it in Nigel Farage or someone like Nigel,” Swenson added. According to Swenson, if the U.K. were to hold an election tomorrow and Farage, 61, were on the ballot, “he would win.”
He added that the leader of the Reform Party would “also win younger voters like 16 to 20 or 18 to 22.”
Charlie Kirk was a prominent and popular voice in the MAGA movement (Image: Getty)
The American expat, who has spent a significant portion of his career on Wall Street with firms such as Lehman Brothers and HSBC, also thinks that the Labour Party is doing itself a disservice by attempting to lower the voting age.
“Labour’s trying to lower the voting age, which I find hysterical, because if they do, they’re going to lose more, right?” he commented, before adding that Farage was “super popular.”
‘Millions want to continue Charlie’s legacy’
Jack Ross, the chief operations officer at Turning Point UK, spoke to Daily Express US about the massive following Kirk had in the U.K..
“I think people really believed in Charlie’s message and I think what happened to Charlie woke a lot of people up.
“I think a lot of people enjoyed watching him, didn’t necessarily feel they had to get involved because he was essentially a one man army doing a lot of very good work while a lot of people I think sat back let him do that and supported from the sidelines,” Ross stated.
Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika, has been named the new CEO of Turning Point UK (Image: @mrserikakirk/Instagram)
Ross, aged 27, discussed how, during his four years at the non-profit, he actually got to meet Kirk “probably about a dozen times.”
He described how Kirk played a pivotal role in launching Turning Point in the UK.
“He was the driving force behind Turning Point, as such, when it was pitched to America, my understanding is the Americans initially said, ‘no, we don’t want it, it’s America first, bro,” Ross explained. “But then Charlie said,’ No, I want to do this.’ So he overruled his own committee.”
Since his passing, Turning Point UK has been overwhelmed with emails offering condolences and expressing interest in joining the movement.
“When Charlie was brutally assassinated, it created a million Charlie Kirks across the world, all of whom want to march forward and carry on his legacy,” Ross added.
