Trump may stop Europe's flirtation with populism dead in its tracks

Telegraph

05-03-2025

Trumpism contains an important contradiction. On the one hand, it views itself as fronting a worldwide movement against globalist elites. The recent CPAC conference featured foreign populist luminaries such as Javier Milei, Nigel Farage and Jair Bolsonaro and an 'international summit' of conservative speakers from around the world.
Many populists have also spoken at the National Conservatism conferences, featuring Vice President JD Vance, or the Jordan Peterson-fronted Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), which I attended recently in London. Vance is especially well-connected to what we might term a 'Populist International'.
But there is a contradiction in promoting populist ideology around the globe and the policy demands of America First. Trump has made this issue clear through his imposition of tariffs on Canada and pause on aid to Ukraine. Indeed, this approach has already claimed its first victim: Canada's populist-lite Conservative leader Pierre Poillievre.
Just a few weeks prior, the Conservatives enjoyed a seemingly unassailable polling lead of over 20 points, powered by Canadians who were sick of Trudeau's woke extremism and his Liberal Party's fondness for mass migration. However, Trump's bombast has created a rally-around-the flag effect that has significantly closed the gap between the two parties.
In Germany, meanwhile, some argue that Elon Musk's intervention in the election in favour of the AfD sparked a 'foreign interference' backlash, damaging the AfD and causing it to underperform.
Trump's attacks on Ukrainian president Zelensky and his cosying up to Putin have likewise fallen flat with many national populist voters outside America, who view Zelensky as a heroic defender of his people against a brutal tyrant.
Trump now also threatens tariffs against Europe. This will tarnish the populist brand even further. The entire continent may respond the way the Canadian electorate has, with political and economic threats from America diverting attention away from the cultural ones that exist within each country.
As my doctoral supervisor Anthony Smith once summarised, the philosophy of nationalism holds that each nation has its own particularity, which it should protect and develop, and that a peaceful world order is based on free nations. Those who support principled nationalism oppose imperialist actions such as invading another country and erasing its culture.
Trump initially inspired principled nationalists across the world because he vowed to roll back the power of elites and institutions that weakened national borders. The focus on limiting illegal immigration and ending the anti-white, anti-male, trans-activist DEI regime landed well worldwide. But this has changed as the Trump administration has gone on an America-centric power trip.
In America itself the trade wars will distract the Trump government from confronting the woke socialist revolution. Legislating means setting priorities. If Congress is dominated by foreign spats, this expends the political capital, floor time and column inches needed to secure border enforcement and win the long war of attrition for free speech and cultural tradition against the ravages of DEI in government and education.
Outside the US, the America Alone approach drives up the visibility of political nationalism. Countries are forced to defend against American aggression and ignore the internal cultural threats facing them. This will create a weaker and more divided international Right.