Trump's meddling in foreign elections is no mere 'whim': analyst

Donald Trump's administration has overseen a shift in the mood of world politics, with the U.S. drifting further to the right and a question mark looming over its relationship with Europe.

The president's team has openly backed political candidates in elections across the globe, notably in Brazil and Honduras last year. Trump's meddling is targeted and shows how far the president will go to ratify his U.S. national security strategy, CNN analyst Stephen Collinson said.

Collinson wrote, "The Trump administration’s backing of Orbán in Hungary’s election is the latest sign of an institutionalized shift to the right in US foreign policy, and a rejection of traditional stances. Some Europeans now regard their longtime protector as a growing political threat.

"And it reflects the growing willingness of the White House — amid new Trump claims that the US election system is plagued by fraud ahead of the midterm elections — to insert itself into the domestic politics of foreign states.

"Trump has already tried to influence voters or shape elections in Argentina, Brazil, Honduras and Poland, and claims to be running Venezuela from the Oval Office after ousting President Nicolás Maduro.

"Trump isn’t acting on a whim. He’s codified his goals in the new US national security strategy, which praises the 'growing influence of patriotic European parties' in Europe. This refers to right-wing populist and anti-immigrant parties like the National Rally in France, Reform in the UK and the AfD in Germany, which are seeking to oust the global leaders with whom Trump deals every day."

Collinson went on to suggest these stress tests of European willingness could amount to the US withdrawing from defense agreements and severing ties with some countries.

He wrote, "At Munich last year, Vice President JD Vance conjured an idealized view of Western Europe rooted in Christianity at risk of being destroyed by a wave of immigration from Muslim and majority non-White nations. This year, Rubio delivered a similar message, albeit cushioned with more diplomatic finesse.

"He insisted that Washington doesn’t want “vassal” states but strong EU partners and that it is committed to ending the Ukraine war threatening the continent. But his speech was also a broad hint that unless the continent adopted MAGA’s view of Western civilization, America’s defense of Europe would be in question."