As the world gradually adjusts to the reality of four years of Donald Trump in the White House, one unexpected phenomenon is becoming apparent. The US president and those around him subscribe to a theory of American power that holds the rules-based international order in contempt. It may take some time to find out how well that theory survives contact with reality. But among its first casualties are right-wing populists in Europe and elsewhere who were happy to associate themselves with the Make America Great Again movement before the president’s inauguration. Now they are on the back foot as the policies he pursues prove unpopular with their own voters.
In Germany’s federal election last month, the far-right Alternative for Germany increased its vote, but failed to make the breakthrough predicted by arch-supporter Elon Musk. Embarrassed by Trump’s attitude towards Ukraine, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK now finds itself riven by factional disputes, some fanned by Musk.
Canadian politics has been upended by the president’s aggressive tariff policy and his braggadocious assertion that the country should become part of the US. As a result, Pierre Poilievre, a populist in the Trumpian mould whose Conservatives were cruising towards a landslide victory in this year’s election, now finds himself neck and neck with new Liberal prime minister Mark Carney.
Who would have guessed contempt for allies and crude attempts to interfere in their domestic politics would elicit such a negative response?
So while it should not come as a surprise that an Irish fighter who was found liable for sexual assault was welcomed into the White House on St Patrick’s Day by a president with a very similar legal record, there is little reason to suppose the tawdry spectacle will provide fuel for the xenophobic agenda rejected by Irish voters last November.
Misogyny, thuggery and American exceptionalism may play well with Trump’s domestic base. But, as Taoiseach Micheál Martin correctly noted, such boorish antics reflect neither the spirit of St Patrick’s Day nor the views of the Irish people.
