Trump touts global nationalist wave, eyes Marine Le Pen’s France run

Trump the president shared an article arguing right-wing populism has swept Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Latin America, with France seen as the next test in 2027.

First Published: July 19, 2026, 3:50 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump cast France as the next front in a worldwide nationalist surge.

The president pointed to the trend in a Truth Social post on July 19, 2026 at 7:28 AM ET. Here is the full post on truthsocial: “Trump-style nationalism surges across globe. Will France be next with Le Pen reprise? https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/trump-style-nationalism-continues-its-sweep-french-do-over-le-pen”

The linked article frames Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of France’s far-right National Rally, as she launches a fresh presidential candidacy according to justthenews. She hopes to ride a rightward political swing. “But populism, focusing on what’s best, what’s common sense, what’s good for the people of your country, what’s good for your country, is, I think, the right approach,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told the outlet.

The underlying ideology is what analysts call deep nationalism, in which economic, immigration and foreign policy pass through a national-interest lens according to niskanencenter.org. That framework prizes protection of domestic jobs, opposition to open borders, and skepticism of supranational rules.

Voters in country after country have grown weary of ballooning welfare states, open-border policies and identity-driven governance, the article argues. Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy party became prime minister in 2022, leading a right-wing coalition. Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration Party for Freedom won the largest share of seats in the Netherlands’ 2023 elections. Sweden’s center-right bloc took power in 2022 with support from the nationalist Sweden Democrats, and conservative Karol Nawrocki narrowly won Poland’s presidential runoff in June 2025 according to justthenews.

The stakes fall hardest on Europe’s establishment parties and the European Union’s cohesion, while nationalist movements stand to gain momentum from each victory. A Le Pen win would remove one of the bloc’s founding members from the pro-integration column. Establishment coalitions in Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada and the Nordic states have so far resisted the shift, the article notes.

Le Pen carries heavy baggage into any campaign. She has lost presidential bids in 2012, 2017 and 2022, and a court convicted her last year of a role in the embezzlement of European parliamentary funds through a fake-jobs scheme. She plans to compete in 2027 after a court shortened her ban on running for office this week according to justthenews.

For the average US reader, the drift matters because allied governments shape trade terms, defense spending and migration policy that touch American businesses and troops stationed abroad. Nationalist leaders tend to press Washington’s demand that allies pay more for their own protection.

Has this happened before? This has happened before. The article points to a string of right-leaning wins across Latin America, including Javier Milei in Argentina in 2023, Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia in 2025, and Keiko Fujimori in Peru in June 2026, following reductions in US foreign aid according to justthenews.

The next decision rests with French voters. The country’s presidential election is scheduled for 2027, though an exact date for the first round has not been announced. Foreign policy dominated 69 of Trump’s 471 posts over the last 30 days according to Zenger analysis.

France has repeatedly served as a proving ground for nationalist politics. The National Front, forerunner of Le Pen’s party, was founded in 1972 by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned Europe by reaching the presidential runoff in 2002 before losing to Jacques Chirac by 82 percent to 18 percent. His daughter later expelled him from the movement and rebranded it, yet the family name has anchored the French far right for more than half a century.