European far-right and populist parties, which once cheered Donald Trump and strengthened their position thanks to his praise, are now distancing themselves from the US president due to his military incursion into Venezuela and attempts to seize Greenland.
The Trump administration has repeatedly extended support to European far-right parties that share similar views on issues from immigration to climate change, helping to legitimize movements that were long stigmatized at home but are now on the rise.
The new US National Security Strategy, released last month, states that “the growing influence of patriotic European parties does indeed give reason for great optimism.”
However, these parties now face a dilemma, as disapproval of Trump is growing across the continent due to his increasingly aggressive foreign policy, and in particular his efforts to take over Greenland from Denmark.
"Donald Trump has broken a fundamental campaign promise - that he would not interfere in other countries," said Alice Weidel of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), while party co-chair Tino Krupala rejected "Wild West methods."
The AfD has cultivated ties with the Trump administration - but polls suggest that may no longer be useful. A survey by the Forsa agency, published on Tuesday, found that 71 percent of Germans see Trump more as an adversary than an ally.
Suspicion of Trump has grown since he vowed on Saturday to impose tariffs on a range of EU countries, including Germany, France, Sweden and Britain, until the US is allowed to buy Greenland.
Those countries sent military personnel to the vast Arctic island last week, at Denmark's request.
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said on Tuesday that Europe must act, citing “anti-coercive measures,” a so-called trade “bazooka” and the suspension of an economic agreement the EU and the United States signed last year. The European Parliament has decided to suspend work on the European Union’s trade deal with the United States, in protest at Trump’s demand to take over Greenland and threats of tariffs on European allies.
The British populist party Reform UK, whose leader Nigel Farage has long emphasized his close ties to Trump, said it was difficult to assess whether the president was bluffing.
“But using economic threats against a country that has been considered your closest ally for over a hundred years is not something we would have expected,” the Reform party said in a statement released on January 19.
Even more direct was Matthias Karlsson, often cited as the chief ideologue of the far-right Sweden Democrats.
“Trump is looking more and more like an inverted King Meade,” he wrote on X. “Everything he touches turns to shit.”
Political scientist Johannes Hille said that it will always be difficult for nationalists to shape a common foreign policy, "because national interests do not always coincide."
Not all European far-right and populist parties have been so critical. Some, such as the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom and Spain's Vox, have praised Trump for removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro but have remained silent on his threats regarding Greenland.
Others, such as Polish President Karol Nawrocki and the nationalist government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have called for the Greenland issue to be resolved bilaterally between the United States and Denmark.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš posted a video on social media on Tuesday in which he waved a map and a globe to show the size of Greenland and how close it is to Russia if it were to send a missile. “The US has a long-term interest in Greenland, it is not just an initiative of Donald Trump now,” he said, calling for a diplomatic solution.
Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, considered one of the European leaders closest to Trump, said his decision to impose tariffs on European allies was a "mistake".
“I spoke to Donald Trump a few hours ago and told him what I think,” she said on Sunday, adding that she believes there is a “problem of understanding and communication” between Washington and Europe. She has not spoken since, but Italian media reports say she is against imposing tariffs on the United States in response and is instead trying to defuse the crisis through talks.
However, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party, blamed the renewed trade tensions on European countries that sent soldiers to Greenland.
"The rush to announce sending soldiers here and there is now bearing its bitter fruit," Salvini wrote on the X network.
Trump yesterday ruled out the use of force in an effort to take control of Greenland, but in a speech in Davos he said that no other country could secure the Danish territory.
“People thought I was going to use force, but I don’t have to use force,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland. “I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
Trump has criticized the United States' European allies for what he said were their arrogance, disloyalty and policy missteps - in areas ranging from wind energy and the environment to immigration and geopolitics.
Trump's increasingly vocal threats to Europe over Greenland have strained transatlantic ties and worried Europeans, overshadowing a speech that was primarily supposed to be dedicated to the American economy.
Calling Denmark "ungrateful," the Republican US president downplayed the issue, describing it as a "small request" regarding a "piece of ice," and said that a possible takeover would not pose a threat to the NATO alliance, of which both Denmark and the US are members.
"No nation or group of nations is in a position to secure Greenland except the United States," Trump said, adding: "I am requesting urgent negotiations to renegotiate the United States' acquisition of Greenland."
On several occasions during his speech, which lasted more than an hour, Trump mistakenly referred to Greenland as Iceland.
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