{"id":719406,"date":"2026-01-25T08:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/719406\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T08:55:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T08:55:12","slug":"trumps-greenland-ambitions-strain-maga-ties-with-europes-far-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/719406\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Greenland ambitions strain MAGA ties with Europe’s far-right"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRUSSELS — Tensions over U.S. President Donald Trump’s<\/a> plans to take control of Greenland<\/a> have driven a wedge in the once iron-clad link between MAGA and Europe’s far-right.<\/p>\n

The rift seems to signal that ideological alignment alone may not be enough to temper worries among European nationalists over Trump’s interventionism abroad. <\/p>\n

Far-right leaders in Germany, Italy and France have strongly criticized Trump’s Greenland plans. Even Nigel Farage, a longtime ally of Trump and head of the Reform UK nationalist party<\/a>, called Trump’s Greenland moves \u201ca very hostile act.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a debate Tuesday in the European Parliament, far-right lawmakers typically aligned with Trump overwhelmingly supported halting a EU-U.S. trade pact over their uneasiness with his threats, calling them \u201ccoercion\u201d and \u201cthreats to sovereignty.”<\/p>\n

Such a divergence between Trump and his European acolytes came as some surprise. <\/p>\n

Far-right parties surged to power in 2024 across the European Union, rattling the traditional powers across the bloc\u2019s 27 nations from Spain to Sweden. Their political groupings now hold 26% of the seats in the European Parliament, according to the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.<\/p>\n

Less than a year ago, Europe’s far-right parties gathered in Madrid<\/a> to applauded Trump’s election under the banner \u201cMake Europe Great Again,\u201d while Elon Musk, before his fall from Trump\u2019s graces, had boosted European far-right influencers and figures on X<\/a>, including Germany\u2019s radical right<\/a> Alternative for Germany party. <\/p>\n

U.S. Vice President JD Vance drew scorn from within Germany and across Europe after he met with AfD leader Alice Weidel during elections in February. The party, with which mainstream parties refuse to work, upset German politics by doubling its presence in the Bundestag to become the nation’s second-largest party.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet deep divisions within MAGA itself over Trump\u2019s approach to foreign affairs has reverberated in Europe, with his actions over Greenland, Venezuela and Iran forcing his political allies to favor their ideological convictions over their deference to the U.S. president. <\/p>\n

France\u2019s far-right National Rally has at times vaunted its ideological closeness to Trump, particularly on immigration.<\/p>\n

A year ago, the party sent one of its senior figures, Louis Aliot, to attend Trump\u2019s inauguration. In turn, Trump has staunchly defended party leader Marine Le Pen,<\/a> describing her conviction for embezzling EU funds<\/a> as a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordan Bardella, the 30-year-old National Rally\u2019s president and a MEP,<\/a> has praised Trump\u2019s nationalist views, saying to the BBC last month that a \u201cwind of freedom, of national pride\u201d was blowing across Western democracies. <\/p>\n

In recent days, however, Bardella has appeared to distance himself from the U.S. administration. In his New Year\u2019s address, he criticized U.S. military intervention in Venezuela aimed at capturing then-President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro,<\/a> calling it \u201cforeign interference\u201d designed to serve \u201cthe economic interests of American oil companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going further, Bardella on Tuesday denounced Trump\u2019s \u201ccommercial blackmail\u201d over Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur subjugation would be a historic mistake,\u201d Bardella said.<\/p>\n

Another Trump ally, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, echoed this sentiment.<\/a> In an interview on Rai television Wednesday, she said that she told Trump during a call that his tariffs threat over Greenland was \u201ca mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the reactions among European right-wing leaders has not been lockstep. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n,<\/a> widely regarded as the trailblazer of Trump\u2019s brand of illiberal populism, has been careful to avoid even the slightest criticism of the U.S. president.<\/p>\n

Facing what is likely to be the toughest election of his 16 years in power<\/a> in April, Orb\u00e1n has built his political identity around his affinity with Trump, promising voters that his close relationship with the president will pay hefty dividends.<\/p>\n

Trump, Orb\u00e1n has insisted, is Europe\u2019s only hope for peace amid the war in Ukraine and a guarantor of national sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n has sought to cast Trump’s threats on Greenland and capture of Maduro either as beneficial for Hungary, or none of its business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an in-house issue \u2026 It\u2019s a NATO issue,\u201d Orb\u00e1n said of Trump\u2019s plans for Greenland during a news conference earlier this month, adding that any proposed change to Greenland’s sovereignty can be discussed within NATO.<\/p>\n

Despite his staunch advocacy of national sovereignty, Orb\u00e1n also praised the U.S. action in Venezuela, calling the country a \u201cnarco state\u201d and suggesting Maduro\u2019s ouster could benefit Hungary through future cheaper oil prices on world markets.<\/p>\n

Hungary\u2019s reluctance to push back on Trump\u2019s actions reflected similar positions among far-right leaders in the EU\u2019s eastern flank. <\/p>\n

Polish President Karol Nawrocki,<\/a> seen as an ally of both Orb\u00e1n and Trump,<\/a> said in Davos this week that the tensions over Greenland should be solved \u201cin a diplomatic way” between Washington and Copenhagen \u2014 not a broader European coalition. He called on Western European leaders to tone down their objections to Trump\u2019s conduct. <\/p>\n

In the neighboring Czech Republic, prime minister and Trump ally Andrej Babis<\/a> has declined to speak out against the U.S. threats to Greenland, and warned against the EU allowing the issue to cause a conflict with Trump. In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/a> has remained silent on Trump\u2019s Greenland designs, even as he met with the president in his Mar-a-Lago resort last week.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump\u2019s deposing of Maduro led Fico to \u201cunequivocally condemn\u201d the action, calling it a \u201ckidnapping\u201d and the \u201clatest American oil adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ideology linking MAGA and its European allies might survive recent disagreements by doubling down on old, shared grievances, said Daniel Heged\u00fcs, Central Europe director of the German Marshall Fund.<\/p>\n

He pointed to recent votes against Brussels\u2019 leadership in European Parliament by far-right European lawmakers on the EU migration pact and halting the massive trade deal<\/a> with the Mercosur bloc of five South American nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Trump continues that way, posing a threat to the sovereignty of European countries, then of course that will divide the European radical right,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know whether this division will stay with us or whether they can again unite forces around issues where they can cooperate. Those issues can be damaging enough for the European Union.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Spike contributed from Budapest and Corbet from Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRUSSELS — Tensions over U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to take control of Greenland have driven a wedge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[214850,3907,5293,33,26934,2000,299,5187,4179,8614,3058,285,211133,10673,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-719406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-214850","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-diplomacy","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-energy-industry","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-international-agreements","18":"tag-international-trade","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","21":"tag-washington-news","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115954904167393209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}