Trump’s success inspires conservatives around the world

Donald Trump’s victory confirms that the post-Cold War liberal consensus in America is over and the revolution of common sense is here to stay. Now, with the rise of populist parties and leaders once dismissed by Europe’s elite, that revolution appears to have crossed the Atlantic.

Thirty years after the United States and Europe tore down the Iron Curtain, the countries of the continent are dismantling another barrier: the cordon sanitaire. And for that, they have Trump to thank.

While conservatives remain focused on solving domestic issues and prioritizing America first, they should also support their European allies.

For decades, the European Union and its member states have maintained an anticompetitive political system. Parties on the left and right have refused to form coalitions or even to vote alongside so-called far-right parties, no matter how many millions of votes those parties receive. This system has crushed the representation of common sense in the EU, silencing voters concerned about unchecked migration, the EU’s overreach, and the continent’s ongoing economic struggles.

As recently as 2019, nearly every EU party erected a firewall against representatives of the Identity and Democracy group — the predecessor of today’s Patriots for Europe. This bloc, which includes France’s National Rally and Italy’s Lega, was excluded from key committee posts, blocking them from influencing policy.

Over the past five years, the political tide has shifted in the opposite direction. After rebelling against the literal cordon sanitaire imposed by public health elites in 2020, common-sense Europeans are now fighting the metaphorical one. Parties like the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Spain’s Vox, and Hungary’s Fidesz are gaining electoral support and toppling failed governments.

The rise of Patriots for Europe represents the strongest symbol of this reinvigorated populist movement — one fueled in part by Donald Trump’s political revolution. While European patriots deserve credit for their movement, it likely would not have gained momentum without Trump leading the global charge over the past decade. His success exposed the incompetence of the globalist elite and provided leaders worldwide with a playbook for securing their borders and challenging the cultural dominance of the woke left.

At the Patriots for Europe party summit in Madrid earlier this month — and again at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London — conservative leaders gathered and praised Trump as their brother in arms.

Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s Vox Party, praised Trump for dismantling USAID, which he believes funded media outlets that “demonized” his movement. Contrary to media claims that Europeans fear Trump’s tariffs, Abascal argues that “the Green Deal and the confiscatory taxes of Brussels and socialist governments” pose a far greater threat to his country’s prosperity.

Beyond admiration for Trump, the prevailing sentiment in Europe is hope. His victory is fueling a wave of momentum for populist conservative leaders determined to challenge the European Union, dismantle wokeness, and curb mass migration into their countries — and they know it.

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally party, calls Trump’s victory a “global tipping point” and says that “everybody understands that something has changed.”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban sums it up simply by saying: "Yesterday we were the heretics. Today we are the majority.”

By advancing common-sense policies that serve the public good, Trump has made clear the deep divide between liberal elites and everyday Americans. European leaders see the same divide in their own countries and believe the time has come to go on offense — finally breaking through the cordon sanitaire imposed by the elites.

Right now, Patriots for Europe is the third-largest group in the European Parliament. With elections approaching, the momentum from Trump’s success could be a decisive factor in expanding their influence, both in their home countries and in Brussels.

This is good news for the United States. While conservatives remain focused on solving domestic issues and prioritizing America first, they should also support their European allies as they dismantle the stagnant oligopoly that has controlled Europe for too long.

Leaders such as Orban, Abascal, and Geert Wilders are not only more pro-America than Europe’s current socialist ruling class, but they also want to make their countries stronger, which means relying less on America’s resources for their security and defense. It is vital that our NATO allies in Europe bear greater responsibility themselves for the defense of Europe.

That’s just common sense. And that’s the spirit animating both sides of the Atlantic. As President Trump wields a sledgehammer against decaying institutions in the United States to make America great again, he has a new host of allies across the ocean picking up their own tools to make Europe great again. As they break down the doors of the halls of power in Brussels, Americans are cheering them every step of the way.