By Dan Grennan
Copyright dailystar
As the Donald Trump circus invaded the UK with an army of security personnel , I bravely ventured into the belly of the beast – a pub hosting a group of Trump mega fans. Decked out in my only red, white and blue ‘sweater’, I set off for West London boozer Biddy Mulligan’s, which has been renamed the ‘Trump Arms’ for the US President’s second state visit. Facing an uncertain future and fears of being coated in fake tan to emulate Trump’s complexion , I clinged on to my hopes that the landlord would be Irish so we had something in common. From the outside, the backstreet boozer appears to be like any other. But a ‘Trump Arms’ banner stretched over the door tells a different story . The pub’s low lighting is the first thing that hits after entering. As my eyes adjusted and I made my way to the counter, I was confronted with a barman that could be mistaken for one of Trump’s kids. He had jet black hair covered by a red MAGA hat and suspenders over a white shirt and tie – I was definitely in the right place. I ordered a bottle of beer and tentatively asked if the landlord Damien was around. He was sitting just a few seats down from me and immediately asked me what part of Ireland I was from in strong Irish accent – I was in. Minutes later I was sat next to the landlord and “his spokesman” Patrick ‘Patsy’ Sullivan discussing the virtues of Donald Trump while slugging down an ice-cold Peroni. While it felt strange to hear people speaking of the Orange Manbaby in a positive light in a London pub, the points being made felt familiar. The US President was said to be “one of us” while other leaders were “not in tune” with what is happening, his hard-line stance on immigration was praised as was his “authenticity” and tendency to speak his mind. While criticisms of the Don were dismissed as a “hoax”. Patrick Sullivan, who runs right wing think-tank Parliament Street, even tried to convince me that the “silent majority” of Londoners were Trump fans despite YouGov polling suggesting almost half of Brits (45%) believe state visit was “wrong”. There was also numerous rounds of praise paid to Charlie Kirk, the right wing commentator who was assassinated as he debated college students in the US. To commemorate the “highly intelligent young man”, Damien named a room of the pub after the late 31-year-old. As the autumn daylight continued to fade and the bar became even darker, more locals and Trump fans filtered in and the pub felt quite busy, especially for a Tuesday evening. An older gentleman with a crutch was beckoned over by Damien to ‘give me a few words’. Mick told how he “liked” Trump when he first set eyes on the clip of him coming down the golden Trump Tower escalator before launching his 2016 election campaign. He added that the US President should also be Prime Minister of the UK. The affectionate admission was interrupted by a man shoving a phone into my face as he said: “this is what should have happened to Starmer”. An AI generated clip showed Trump carrying Keir over the cliffs of Dover in a wheel barrow which was met with a hearty round of laughter. Another regular, who called himself “Mad Max”, enquired with the landlord if he could remove a Trump poster from the pool table. After he was told he could, I asked Max why he liked Trump. He responded: “because he is mad like me”. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .
