London-the second Trump administration may have scrambled the feathers of the United States allies, but there is also evidence that he has driven world leaders fighting to deal with the approach that destroys the rules of the White House.
Some have won applause to meet Trump in front, while others have taken a more nuanced line between flattering the president and trying to underpin their own interests against winds against Washington.
Mark Carney of Canada is ready to win the elections next month by voluble rejecting the hostile advances of President Donald Trump to make his country the state 51. On the other hand, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has gained praise for becoming a Trump whisper, bly responding to her tariff threats and see her own popularity accordingly.
In Europe, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron have received voting impulse after their widely praised Trump strategies. And the manager of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has seen his numbers increase while he has tried to cope with Washington’s abrupt approach.
“The position of politicians who have to deal with the crisis generated by Trump’s presidency is leading to an increase in their popularity, if they seem to be doing this in a reasoned and adequate way,” said Dominic Grieve, former British attorney general and a former senior legislator for the conservative party.
To be clear, Trump is not panacea for leaders. Macron and Starmer are still relatively unpopular and face harsh criticism about national issues that will probably decide future elections. Similarly, good voting numbers will be of limited joy for Zelenskyy, while the future of his entire country is in doubt.
Other analysts discuss the extent to which this impulse of popularity is only due to Trump, instead of the general climate of global instability and the uncertainty of which Washington is part.
“I am not sure how much is a Trump rebound or more than one bounce of international crisis,” said Anand Menon, director of The Think Tank UK in a changing Europe. “Insecurity means that, at least initially, confidence in the government increases.”
Even so, the abrupt change in the tone and policy of the White House is an undeniable factor.
Trump’s attacks against Canada have seen a notable change for Carney Liberals. They were directed to historical losses, but Trump’s attack has seen them set up a wave of renewed Canadian nationalism and lead the 45% surveys before the April 28 elections.
“The old relationship we had with the United States,” Carney told a press conference on Thursday, “is over.”
Sheinbaum from Mexico has chosen a different tactic, taking measures on immigration and fentanyl traffic, including the shipment of 10,000 National Guard troops to the border. That won a delay in Trump’s rates, as well as praise of the president of the United States, who called her “a wonderful woman.”
At home, he has mixed this strategy with a brain nationalism, telling voters that it is “coordination, yes, submission, never.”
Its already high grades have increased to 85%, according to the newspaper El Financiero in February.
In the United Kingdom, Starmer qualifications have increased 8.5 percentage points since February, according to the British Ipsos polls. That followed an Oval office meeting with Trump in which he mixed the fulfillment of the frankness: to speak with a possible commercial agreement while refusing to move from a commitment to Ukraine.
He has promised to raise British defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, part of the broader nervousness in Europe about Trump’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance.
Economy and medical care will probably decide the next elections. But the defense is now the third most important issue for British voters, according to most surveys. And it is international defense and trade in which voters think that Starmer is working better, according to the Ipsos survey between March 14 and 17.
“Almost all their readings have become somewhat less unpopular following their trip to Washington,” said John Curtice, one of the most respected voting experts in Britain and a professor at Strathclyde University of Scotland. “I think it is fair to say that the public has noticed that the challenge has increased.”
Another man who hits the drum in European defense is Macron de France. He and Starmer lead an informal “Willing Coalition”: a group of countries prepared to send troops to Ukraine to defend any high fire.
Similarly, the current international agitation has seen Macron’s popularity jump to 31% in March, more than 7 points since the previous month, according to an IFOP survey.
However, these numbers are still relatively low and can be fleeting. Macron cannot run again in the next elections, in 2027, but his centrist heirs run the risk of losing the presidency before the national concentration of the extreme right, the current favorite.
The same is true for Starmer, whose Labor Party has slipped from an overwhelming victory last year to almost parity with the conservatives and the right -wing reform, most voters are worried about high food prices, energy and housing, instead of the replica of the oval office of their leader.
For any leader who enjoy a momentary advantage, Menon, from the United Kingdom in a changing Europe, has a warning: “I would not please the fact that, at this time, things look a little better because Trump’s uncertainty.”
