U.S. President Donald Trump greets Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni outside the White House in April, 2025.Win McNamee/Getty Images

A year ago, far-right leaders in Europe celebrated Donald Trump’s return to the White House in the expectation that his America First credo would draw more voters toward their nationalist policies aimed at increasing border controls and combatting European Union diktats.

Their long-standing calls for enhanced national sovereignty to counter EU-driven rule-making were championed by the U.S. President and Vice-President JD Vance, who denounced EU regulations that targeted American tech companies and immigration policies that they claimed threatened the continent’s cultural identity.

The unofficial alliance between the European far right and the White House was laid out in December with the release of the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, which made supporting nationalist parties on the continent a key element of U.S. foreign policy.

“American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history,” the NSS said, calling the rise of “patriotic” parties a “cause for great optimism.”

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