Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage says Donald Trump is “fully entitled” to “get tough” on immigration, and recommends the United Kingdom also introduces new vetting measures to deal with the consequences of “the Merkel madness”.

Pressed in a BBC Sunday Politics interview on whether he agrees with the president’s executive order on ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States’, which temporarily restricts travel for asylum seekers and passport-holders from seven states identified as “countries of concern” by the Obama administration, the former UK Independence Party leader was unequivocal:

“I agree with a concept called ‘democracy’ … [Trump] was elected to get tough. He was elected to say he would do everything within his power to protect America from infiltration by ISIS terrorists.”

That Islamists have infiltrated Europe via the migrant influx is not in question, with Manfred Hauser, vice-president of the BayLfV intelligence agency in Bavaria, Germany, admitting that there are now “hit squads and sleeper cells” throughout the country.

“We have substantial reports that among the refugees there are hit squads”, he confessed. “There are hundreds of these reports, some from refugees themselves.”

Farage characterised Trump’s executive order as a logical reaction to the consequences of “the Merkel Madness”, as he terms the German Chancellor’s decision to declare “no limit” on migrant numbers, and called on the UK to follow the U.S.’s example.

“Trump’s policy, in many ways, has been shaped by what Mrs. Merkel did. He is fully entitled to do this, and as far as we’re concerned, in this country, yes, I would like to see extreme vetting.”

Farage’s statements echo the sentiments expressed by the spokesman for the Czech president, Jiří Ovčáček, who reacted to the executive order by tweeting that “Trump protects his country, he’s concerned with the safety of his citizens. Exactly what EU elites do not do.”

Farage had harsh words for these “EU elites” in another interview, saying that “the one thing that Donald Trump must not do is take advice on how to deal with terrorism from the French president or the German chancellor, because they’re the people who opened the door to ISIS, and we’re seeing that every month with attacks in Europe.”

The MEP acknowledged that terrorism in the U.S. has been largely homegrown since September 11th, 2001, but argued that this was no reason to exacerbate the threat by following Europe’s open-door example.

“When you’ve got a problem already, why on Earth would you wish to add to it? And I would remind you, that of the eight people that committed those atrocities in Paris, five of them had got into Europe posing as refugees.”