The president made a series of odd remarks about European countries becoming increasingly unsafe due to immigration, citing “what’s happening” in Sweden, Germany, and France. He then regaled the crowd in a most un-populist way: Citing a friend of his, “Jim,” who used to take annual trips to Paris. But no longer, because “Jim” found that “Paris is no longer Paris.”
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, was quick to respond with this tweet, posted in both French and English versions:
Trump’s habit of picking fights and badmouthing longtime global allies may seem odd. But one thing these countries all have in common is the presence of vocal alt-right/pro-Russia political parties. There is the UK Independence Party, formerly headed by Trump’s friend and CPAC attendee Nigel Farage; Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France; Alternative for Germany; Geert Wilders’s Party For Freedom in the Netherlands; and the Sweden Democrats. There are even two different alt-right parties down under in Australia, One Nation and the Australian Conservatives.
Nigel Farage may have given the game away during his speech: “What happened in 2016 is the beginning of a great, global revolution. And this will roll out across the rest of the West. We’ve got some very exciting elections coming up: in the Netherlands, in France, in Germany, possibly even in Italy. And believe me, I don’t yet know whether the results in 2017 will be as dramatic as the results in 2016. But what I do know is that even if the challengers don’t get over the line this year, what they will do is shift the center of gravity of the entire debate.”
It sounds like Donald Trump is excited by the prospect, too.