The Trump dilemma Populist right forced to choose loyalty to country over ideology

Donald Trump's attempted Greenland grab has driven a wedge between the US president and some of his ideological allies in Europe, as previously unstinting enthusiasm and admiration collides with one of the far right's key tenets: national sovereignty.

- Jon Henley

Trump's subsequent disparaging remark that Nato allies' troops “stayed a little off the frontlines” while fighting with US forces in Afghanistan has only deepened the divide, piquing far-right patriotic sentiments and prompting an avalanche of criticism.

The US president last week stepped away from his drive to seize Greenland, promising he would not take it by force or impose tariffs on nations opposing him. Faced with a fierce backlash, he also appeared to change his tone after the jibe at non-US Nato troops.

But for radical-right populists - who lead or support governments in a third of the EU's member states, are vying for power in others, and who saw in Trump a powerful ally for their nation-first, anti-immigration, EU-critical cause - he is increasingly a liability.

The divide could jeopardise the goals of his administration's national security strategy, which set a US policy objective of “cultivating resistance” to Europe's “current trajectory” by working with “patriotic allies” to avert “civilisational erasure”.

Just over a year ago, Europe's far-right leaders were effusively welcoming Trump's return to the White House. A few months later, they gathered in Madrid to applaud his America First agenda under the banner “Make Europe Great Again”.