Liz Truss went down in history as the shortest-serving UK PM. She’s rebranding as a US right-wing darling

Nearly 18 months ago, Liz Truss was the UK Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, with the authority to direct the actions of Her Majesty’s Government and even to unleash the United Kingdom’s store of nuclear-tipped Trident missiles.

But on Thursday, standing before a half-empty ballroom at a Washington DC-area hotel and convention centre, she cut a far less impressive figure.

Ms Truss is appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual right-wing confab once home to conservative and libertarian stalwarts such as Ronald Reagan and Mitt Romney but which, in recent years, has morphed into a Trumpian pep rally.

To that end, she made her CPAC debut at a hastily-arranged “international summit” alongside Nigel Farage, the ex-UKIP MEP and former Brexit Party leader who has spent more and more of his time since Brexit focused on boosting Donald Trump’s effort to return to the White House.

Mr Farage has long been a darling of the American far-right and a CPAC regular. But Ms Truss’ appearance at the gathering appears part of a new offensive meant to give her a base of support in the US and new allies in the populist, antidemocratic milieu inhabited by Mr Trump, Mr Farage, and other authoritarian-friendly gadflies such as ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

To that end, she peppered her remarks on Wednesday — and a second speech in the main CPAC ballroom on Thursday — with attacks on unelected civil servants and non-governmental agencies who she blamed for her time in Number 10 coming to a disastrous end after just 49 days. (She was infamously outlasted by a lettuce.)

She told attendees that the “most almighty backlash” she faced after the catastrophic reaction to her 2022 mini-budget – which