Nigel Farage, the right-wing British politician and Brexit mastermind, is scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., on July 19, two people familiar with his travel plans said. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images U.K. firebrand Farage angles for a meeting with Trump

CHEQUERS, England — President Donald Trump may not be finished embarrassing British Prime Minister Theresa May — even after stating Friday that their relationship was “very, very strong” despite his comments undermining her Brexit strategy.

Nigel Farage, the right-wing British politician and Brexit mastermind, is scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., on July 19, two people familiar with his travel plans said, and is working to set up a meeting with Trump while he is there.


“As someone with unique insight into Brexit, the trans-Atlantic relationship, and what’s going on with the panicked EU member states, Nigel will be on hand for the president whenever Mr. Trump sees fit to talk,” said a Farage associate who has been back-channeling with the White House about a potential meeting. Those plans, a second source cautioned, were still up in the air.

But any meeting with Farage would be seen as another blow to May, delivered personally by Trump — especially after local newspapers here reported that Farage had been “banned” from meeting with Trump during his two days in England. Farage, a British politician and activist, has been called "the face of Brexit," the 2016 referendum forcing Great Britain's withdrawal from the European Union whose surprise passage shocked Europe and rocked markets.

Following a visit in which British officials tried to impress Trump with visits to castles and even a tea with the queen, any presidential tete-a-tete with the populist provocateur would resonate as further intervention into a fragile political situation here — and a tacit backing to one of the embattled May’s top detractors.

Trump already threw one wrench into the local political drama here on Thursday, by unloading his thoughts about Brexit in an interview with The Sun. In the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid newspaper, which is generally pro-Trump, the president undercut May — who has been struggling to hold together her governing coalition amid a political fight over the terms of Britain's pending EU exit — hours after landing in England for a working meeting on trade issues. He expressed support for her conservative political rival, Boris Johnson, and raised doubts about his own willingness to negotiate a trade deal.

“I think the deal that she is striking is not what the people voted on,” Trump told The Sun of May’s approach to the Brexit negotiations, while also noting that Johnson, who resigned his post as foreign secretary last week to protest May’s Brexit strategy, would make an excellent prime minister.

The interview was a diplomatic bombshell the day before Trump’s bilateral meeting with May — and a body blow to yet another world leader who has tried to play nice with him. But in Chequers on Friday, the odd couple smiled gamely for the cameras and claimed that their working relationship was going just great.

Trump said that a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace on Thursday night was the best time he’s had with May since he took office. “We talked for an hour, an hour-and-a-half,” he said. “Today, we’re talking trade, we’re talking military, we just moved some incredible anti-terrorism things.”

Trump allies, however, are conspiring behind the scenes.

Over the past two days, Farage has also been spending quality time with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who has set up shop in London to confer with the leaders of Europe’s surging populist movement. Bannon met with Farage again on Friday morning, just as Trump headed out for his meeting with May, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Farage has also banked quality time with Trump during his past visits to Washington: In February 2017, he joined the president for dinner at the Trump Hotel, along with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. During other visits to Washington, he has been spotted at the Trump Hotel with aides like Stephen Miller.

During the presidential transition, Trump tweeted that Farage would make for a great U.K. ambassador.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not immediately respond to a request for comment about any potential meeting next week.

Later in the day on Friday, Trump is scheduled to sit down to tea with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. That meeting is expected to impress the Anglophile in Trump more than his meeting with May, who insiders in Trump world said he considers “weak.”

“I think he will be more respectful of the queen than any other world leader,” said television host Piers Morgan, a longtime friend of Trump’s and a former contestant on “The Apprentice.“ “I'm sure when he walks in there, it's going to be a humbling moment.”