A Global Trump Movement? France Election Signals No

After his November election, President Trump and his strategists foresaw the beginning of a populist wave washing over the developed world. But instead of being joined by like-minded counterparts across the Atlantic, Mr. Trump finds himself facing a European leadership that has repudiated his fiery brand of politics.

The decisive defeat in Sunday’s election of his preferred choice for president of France underscored the limits of the nationalist populism that Mr. Trump has come to represent. It also further complicated a trans-Atlantic relationship already stressed by issues like the future of trade, a resurgent Russia, the mission of the NATO alliance, and extremism and war in the Middle East.

Mr. Trump called to congratulate President-elect Emmanuel Macron on Monday, a day after voters picked him by a 2-to-1 margin over Marine Le Pen, the far-right nationalist who had the American president’s implicit support. Mr. Trump emphasized his desire to cooperate on “shared challenges,” the White House said afterward, and the two leaders will meet for the first time on the sideline of a meeting of NATO leaders in Brussels on May 25.

But Mr. Trump will find more shared challenges than shared values as he encounters the new tandem of Mr. Macron and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, both champions of the European project and skeptics of Russian adventurism. With Ms. Merkel in strong shape heading into an election this fall — and facing an opponent who, like her, supports the European Union — the French election was perhaps the last, best chance for Mr. Trump to secure a major ally this year through a populist electoral uprising.

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