How Trump
Became a Liability for Europe’s Far Right
Europe’s
nationalist leaders once saw President Trump as an ideological ally. Now, as he
threatens European sovereignty, they are seeking distance — at least for the
moment.
By Jeanna
Smialek Koba
Ryckewaert and Catherine Porter
Jeanna
Smialek and Koba Ryckewaert reported from Brussels, and Catherine Porter from
Paris.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/27/world/europe/trump-liability-europe-far-right-populists.html
Jan. 27,
2026
Updated
5:39 a.m. ET
The
relationship between President Trump and Europe’s far right was always an
awkward one. European nationalists have long welcomed the momentum that the
president has given their parties even as his “America first” doctrine spelled
trouble for their countries.
Now,
their association with Washington is emerging as an outright liability as Mr.
Trump poses challenges to national sovereignty and chastises Europe.
In recent
days, Europe’s nationalist leaders have taken a more strident stance against
Mr. Trump after his military operations in Venezuela; his threats to take over
Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory; and a rambling speech in Davos,
Switzerland, that underscored his disdain for the continent.
Nigel
Farage, the leader of the British far-right party Reform UK and long an ally of
the American president, described Mr. Trump’s threats around Greenland as a
“very hostile act.” Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s right-wing prime minister, who is
largely seen as friendly to Mr. Trump, rejected his assertion that European
soldiers had played only a minor role in Afghanistan.
Jordan
Bardella, the president of the French far-right party National Rally, who has
long expressed wariness of the U.S. leader, sharpened his criticism last week
by describing Mr. Trump’s stance on Greenland as “unacceptable” and calling his
recent threats to impose tariffs on France “blackmail.”
The
European far right still shares key ideas with Mr. Trump and his political
movement — including a push for less immigration, a desire for tightly
controlled borders and worries about the erosion of European culture.
The Trump
administration has officially praised “patriotic European parties,” and that
affinity could quietly sustain ties between far-right leaders on either side of
the Atlantic. But right now, public association with the U.S. president is
increasingly looking like a politically treacherous high-wire act, especially
for parties that make national pride and sovereignty cornerstone issues.
“Whatever
the AfD or Rassemblement National believe about civilizational erasure and
migration, they’re not for the American annexation of a big chunk of Europe,”
said Justin Logan, a foreign-policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute
in Washington, referring to far-right parties in Germany and France.
The Trump
administration swiftly presented itself as a staunch defender of Alternative
for Germany, or AfD, a far-right party that German intelligence services have
called a “proven right-wing extremist organization.” Vice President JD Vance
gave a speech in Munich last February urging German leaders to allow the AfD to
enter the federal government, without mentioning any of the reasons, such as
the use of Nazi slogans by some members, other parties have shunned it.
Then Mr.
Trump and Mr. Vance expressed support for Marine Le Pen, a French far-right
leader, after she was found guilty of embezzlement and barred from running for
office — a conviction she is currently appealing.
The Trump
administration’s national security strategy, released in December, codified
what had long been apparent from its public statements: The White House sought
to throw its weight behind far-right parties across the continent.
That felt
like a “shot in the arm” to right-wing nationalist movements in Europe, said
Jacob Reynolds, the head of policy at MCC Brussels, a research group that hosts
events for European far-right politicians and is closely associated with Prime
Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, a Trump ally.
Yet,
weeks later, Mr. Trump’s affronts to European sovereignty and dignity have left
his ideological allies in a tight spot — especially after he insisted that he
needed to own Greenland and threatened to impose more tariffs on European
nations that got in his way, only to walk back those ultimatums.
“It
damages populist, patriotic parties when these things are conducted in the
open,” Mr. Reynolds said.
The
challenge is all the greater for European nationalists because their voters
were already eyeing America with increasing suspicion. A substantial share of
voters aligned with the far right in Britain, France and Germany viewed Mr.
Trump negatively even before recent weeks, polls have shown. Only 15 percent of
Germans, the lowest figure ever recorded, now consider the United States a
trustworthy partner, a survey carried out early in January found.
Now, Mr.
Trump’s threats are being seized as an opportunity by the political center,
which senses a chance to skewer its right-wing political opponents.
Manfred
Weber, a German center-right politician who leads the largest party in the
European Parliament, said in a speech last week that far-right lawmakers “have
to decide if they want to be real Europeans, or they are a colony of
Washington.”
Against
that backdrop, Mr. Trump’s allies across the continent have sought to distance
themselves from him.
In Italy,
Ms. Meloni — who has long positioned herself as a bridge between Europe and Mr.
Trump — reacted unusually strongly to Mr. Trump’s assertions last Thursday that
NATO troops had “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” in
Afghanistan. She pointed out in a statement that 53 Italian soldiers had died,
and that more than 700 had been injured.
“Friendship
requires respect, a fundamental condition for continuing to ensure the
solidarity that underpins the Atlantic alliance,” she said in a statement.
Other
far-right parties that had already been edging away from Mr. Trump have now
widened that space. Mr. Bardella in France had already been careful in how he
talked about the American president. Early last year, he called Mr. Trump’s
election “good news for America, but bad news for France and Europe.”
After the
United States captured Venezuela’s president earlier this month and then
promptly escalated its threats over Greenland, Mr. Bardella took an even
stronger stance. The choice Europe faces, he said in a speech last week, is
between accepting “a form of vassalization under the guise of trans-Atlantic
partnerships” or responding strongly.
Renaud
Labaye, a senior official in Mr. Bardella’s party, said in an interview: “We
are sovereigntists. We believe every state should do what it wants and defend
its own interests.”
In
France, Mr. Trump has become so unpopular that any tie to him could seem
politically toxic. Eric Ciotti, who leads a small party affiliated with
National Rally, deleted two congratulatory social media posts that he put out
after Mr. Trump’s election. Mr. Ciotti’s office did not respond to requests for
comment.
Some
nationalist parties, particularly those that had long benefited from their
association with Mr. Trump and his supporters, have stayed silent or wavered
over their response.
Robert
Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, was at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s home in
Florida, on the day Mr. Trump threatened to raise tariffs on several European
nations to punish their support for Greenland. Mr. Fico later posted about his
visit on social media — without mentioning Greenland.
In
Germany, the AfD’s leaders publicly disagreed over whether to criticize Mr.
Trump’s actions over Greenland and in Venezuela or present it as a necessary
realignment of the international order.
Beatrix
von Storch, one of the AfD’s most prominent trans-Atlanticists, rejected any
American claims to Greenland, saying on public television that the territory
“clearly” belonged to Denmark. Alice Weidel, one of the two party leaders, said
that Mr. Trump’s incursion into Venezuela had “violated a fundamental campaign
promise, namely not to interfere in other countries.”
But the
other party leader, Tino Chrupalla, reacted more favorably to Mr. Trump’s
actions, saying that international law “must be renegotiated” and adding that
“Venezuela belongs to America’s sphere of influence, just as Ukraine belongs to
Russia’s sphere of influence.”
Maximilian
Krah, another AfD lawmaker, backed American ownership of Greenland in an
article on The Asia Times. “The U.S. cannot allow a significant part of the
North American landmass — with considerable mineral resources — to remain
outside its control,” Mr. Krah wrote.
Anton
Troianovski contributed reporting from Washington, Christopher F. Schuetze from
Berlin, and Ana Castelain from Paris.
Jeanna
Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
Catherine
Porter is an international reporter for The Times, covering France. She is
based in Paris.
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