But wait: the MAGA crowd doesn't hate Europe quite as thoroughly as it does Columbia University. After all, not all European leaders are on board with social democracy, DEI, human rights, and Palestine. In fact, in some parts of the continent, Trump and Vance are heroes, not zeros.
Hungary's leader Viktor Orba'n, for instance, has long been a friend and inspiration for Donald Trump. After all, he's managed to translate the illiberalism of Vladimir Putin -- anti-democratic, anti-LGBT, uber-nationalist -- into a semi-democratic vernacular of great appeal to an American far right that must negotiate a significantly more complex political landscape than the one that surrounds the Kremlin.
As Putin's greatest acolyte, Orba'n has worked overtime to undermine a common European approach to Ukraine. He initially opposed aid to Ukraine, a stance ultimately overcome by the pressure tactics of other European leaders. He pushed for a watered-down version of the most recent EU statement in support of that country, only to watch the other 26 EU members pass it without him. And he's rejected Ukrainian membership in the EU. Still, with elections scheduled for 2026 and the opposition now outpolling Orba'n's Fidesz party, the days of one man holding the EU hostage may soon be over.
While Orba'n does have allies, most of them -- like AUR in Romania and the National Alliance in Latvia -- are sniping from the sidelines as part of the opposition. Several other far-right parties like the ruling Fratelli d'Italia in Italy don't share Orba'n's odd affection for Putin. But if the AfD in Germany or the National Rally in France were to win enough votes to take over their respective governments, Europe's political center of gravity could indeed shift.
Such divisions extend to the question of EU expansion. Serbia's pro-Russian slant makes such a move unlikely in the near term and Turkey is too autocratic to qualify, while both Bosnia and Georgia, like Ukraine, are divided. It's hard to imagine Ukraine itself overcoming its internal divisions -- or its war-ravaged economy -- to meet Europe's membership requirements, no matter the general enthusiasm inside that country and elsewhere in Europe for bringing it in from the cold.
Nonetheless, EU expansion is what Putin fears the most: a democratic, prosperous union that expands its border with his country and inspires Russian activists with its proclamations of universal values. No small surprise, then, that he's tried to undermine the EU by supporting far-right and Euroskeptical movements. Yet the combination of the war in Ukraine and the reelection of Donald Trump may be undoing all his efforts.
The experience of feeling trapped between two illiberal superpowers has only solidified popular support for the EU and its institutions. In a December 2024 poll, trust in the EU was at its highest level in 17 years, particularly in countries that are on the waiting list like Albania and Montenegro. Moreover, around 60% of Europeans support providing military aid to Kyiv and future membership for Ukraine.
For increasing numbers of those outside its borders, Europe seems like a beacon of hope: prosperous democracies pushing back against the onslaught of Trump and Putin. And yet, even if Europe manages to stave off the challenges of its home-grown far right, it may not, in the end, prove to be quite such a beacon. After all, it has its own anti-migrant policies and uses trade agreements to secure access to critical raw materials and punish countries like Indonesia that have the temerity to employ their own mineral wealth to rise higher in the global value chain. Although, unlike Putin's Russia and Trump's America, it's doing its best to shift to a clean-energy economy, it's done so all too often by dirtying the nests of other countries to get the materials it needs for that shift.
Whatever its resemblance to a liberal arts college, Europe is anything but a non-profit institution and can sometimes seem more like a fortress than a beacon. As was true of those medieval monasteries that preserved the classical learning of the ages but also owned land and serfs, supplied markets with addictive products like chartreuse, and subjected their members to torture and imprisonment, saving civilization can have a darker side.
Exiting the Dark Age
The International Criminal Court's arrest of Rodrigo Duterte should be a powerful reminder that justice is possible even in the most unjust of times. Brutal leaders almost always sow the seeds of their own demise. Putin's risky moves have mobilized virtually all of Europe against him. In antagonizing country after country, Trump is similarly reinforcing liberal sentiment in Canada, in Mexico, and throughout Europe.
If the world had the luxury of time, holing up in the modern equivalent of monasteries and waiting out the barbarians would be a viable strategy. But climate change cares little for extended timelines. And don't forget the nuclear doomsday clock or the likelihood of another pandemic sweeping across the globe. Meanwhile, Trump and his allies are destroying things at such a pace that the bill for "reconstruction" grows more astronomical by the day.
The gap between the fall of the Roman Empire and the first glimmers of the Renaissance was about 1,000 years. No one has that kind of time anymore. So, while long-term strategies to fight the right are good, those standing up to the bullies also need to act fast and forcefully. The world can't afford a European retreat into a fortress and the equivalent of monastic solitude. The EU must unite with all like-minded countries against the illiberal nationalists who are challenging universal values and international law.
The ICC set a good example with its successful seizure of Duterte. Let's all hope, for the good of the world, that The Hague will have more global scofflaws in its jail cells -- and soon.
Copyright 2025 John Feffer
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