European far-right parties scramble to distance themselves from Trump
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Since Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, several European nationalist parties have been backing away from the U.S. president as his foreign-policy brinkmanship, trade fights, and collapsing appeal make him harder to sell to voters.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025, European nationalist parties that once eagerly looked to his administration for political and financial backing have begun to quietly distance themselves from the U.S. president. Analysts note that parties such as the United Kingdom's Reform UK, France's National Rally, Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD), Italy's Brothers of Italy and others are now reassessing the value of that relationship with growing caution.
The shift follows a series of highly controversial U.S. actions, including threats to annex Greenland, a war with Iran, and trade disputes with the European Union, which European observers say have damaged the parties' electoral prospects. Robert Benson of the Center for American Progress said the Trump administration "mistaken[ed] cultural affinity for strategic alignment" with European far-right groups.
In an interview with The Economist, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel expressed disapproval of Trump's approach, saying his remarks and policies have become a political liability for European allies. > "Trump's repeated threats to invade Greenland, his attacks on the pope and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and his trade war on the EU have made the friendship electorally costly," wrote Armida van Rij in Strategic Europe.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who previously maintained a close rapport with Trump, has publicly described the president as a "toxic asset" in recent commentary. In France, Marine Le Pen has avoided mentioning Trump during her campaign, while her deputy Jordan Bardella criticized the "totally erratic" war in Iran.
Think-tank analysts such as Dominique Moïsi of Institut Montaigne argue that Trump's declining approval ratings and the United States' unfavorable perception across Europe have turned his endorsement into a disadvantage for right-wing parties seeking mainstream legitimacy.
The overall trend suggests that, despite earlier cooperation, European far-right movements are now putting narrow national political calculations ahead of alignment with the Trump administration.