LONDON (AP) — Nigel Farage is reveling in his successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union, buddying up to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and predicting the fire he helped kindle may soon spread to France and finally torch the European integration project.

Heady stuff for a man who was defeated in his 2015 bid for a seat in the British Parliament and who is no longer at the helm of the right-wing UK Independence Party.

Farage is scorned by Britain's power elite but is hardly languishing in obscurity, thanks now to his remarkable access to Trump.

Farage told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the anti-elite passions which fueled the Brexit referendum vote and Trump's victory are spreading to France and other countries and may soon splinter the 28-nation EU.