How friendly will Europe’s right wing be to Trump on China? It’s complicated

“USA today. The future has begun!” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted on X this month after visiting Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, along with photographs including one of the Time magazine cover of the president-elect, its person of the year.

Two days earlier, Trump dined with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at a reception for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, telling reporters she was “a real live wire” that he “got along great” with.

That Trump would hit it off with the two European right-wing leaders is no surprise. They share similar views on the challenge of immigration and many other social issues that define the populist fervour that brought each to power.