Trump’s European Revolution

In an extract from their recently published essay for the European Council on Foreign Relations, Ivan Krastev and Mark Leonard explore the impact of Donald Trump’s MAGA project for ‘postwar’ Europe

“We are in the process of a second American revolution”. So claimed Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. The Trumpian think-tank’s policy ideas – on everything from education and migration to healthcare and human rights – have helped to shape the seismic change that has upended American politics.

But Trump’s revolution, like previous ones before it, is not simply about changing policies and institutions, but about the identity of the country itself.

In just six months, the US has shifted from championing liberal democracy to promoting illiberalism and economic protectionism. This revolutionary transformation reaches far beyond the nation’s borders. In that sense, it is not just an American revolution. It is reshaping Europe, too.