The Toxic Asset: How Trump Became a Liability for Europe's Populist Right

A year and a half ago, a photograph with Trump was worth votes. Today it costs them.

That is where Europe's nationalist right finds itself in the summer of 2026. The coalition that stretched from Rome to Budapest to Paris — the one that cheered Trump's return as its own triumph — is backing away from the man it called an ally not long ago. Quietly, where it still can. Loudly, where it no longer has a choice.

The question is not whether this is happening. The question is what it reveals about the nature of the alliance they built.