In his second term, US President Donald Trump has taken his MAGA movement global, criticizing election outcomes, climate change initiatives and migration policy while backing populist presidential candidates.
Days after the presidential election in Honduras, the two leading candidates are still neck and neck. At one point, only about 500 votes were separating the centrist Salvador Nasralla and the conservative Nasry Asfura.
This was reason enough for US President Donald Trump to pipe up for his favorite, Asfura. “Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election. If they do, there will be hell to pay!” he posted on his own social media platform Truth Social.
There have been allegations of election fraud on both sides. This is not uncommon in Honduras, where serious allegations of the like overshadowed the elections of 2013 and 2017. But since Honduras is a small country with little influence over global politics, why has Trump reacted so strongly?
For Cathryn Clüver-Ashbrook, a trans-Atlantic expert at the independent German Bertelsmann Foundation, the US president has clearly taken a liking to the idea of political spheres of influence.
“He sees himself almost as imperial in his role in the White House, and he likes it when the world dances to his tune — especially in the Western Hemisphere. And it must be emphasized that these are his interests, not those of traditional US foreign policy.”
One of his “spheres of interest” seems to be Latin America. “The military operations off the coast of Venezuela, the well over $20 billion that went to Argentinian President (Javier) Milei to save his election, the intimidation of the Colombian head of state, the election recommendation in Honduras, with threatening postures,” Clüver-Ashbrook lists.
“A new policy is emerging here that the US has not pursued so actively toward its neighbors in Latin and South America for a long time.”
Interference in Europe
But Europe is also a target.
- In Poland, Trump openly supported the nationalist-conservative EU skeptic Karol Nawrocki.
- In Hungary, he stands behind Viktor Orban.
- In Germany, the US government and the far-right AfD party are currently intensifying their contacts.
Just a few days ago, the US instructed its diplomats to promote anti-immigration policies in Europe.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that is closely aligned to Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement , has actively lobbied against the EU’s climate targets. In April, it published “Project 2025,” which is considered a blueprint for restructuring the US government.
In the first year of his second presidential term, Trump has radically changed the US’s foreign policy. More radically than almost any of his predecessors, he is breaking with the unwritten principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of allied states.
Trump sees Europe as a ‘parasite’ exploiting the US
In this context, domestic and foreign policy are essentially one and the same for the US president, concluded Celia Belin, the author of a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in May 2025. She argued that the US president saw his foreign policy primarily as an international continuation of the cultural struggle raging within the US.
“Liberals and Democrats are the enemy within; Europeans are their extension outside,” she wrote. She went on to say that Trump perceived Europe as a “parasite” exploiting the US, just as he accuses Democrats in the US of weakening the country.
“An ideologization of US foreign policy can already be found in the core documents of Project 2025,” agreed Clüver-Ashbrook, explaining that these argued that US foreign policy should be more closely aligned with strict conservative values.
This, she continued, fits in with the attitude of Trump’s former campaign advisor Steve Bannon, who recently described Russia in an interview as a “devoutly Christian nation” and a “true ally during World War II.”
She explained that the Trump administration was breaking with previous foundations of US foreign policy and pursuing a “major ideological shift” driven by “very strategic ambitions regarding foreign policy.”
Clüver-Ashbrook pointed out that Europeans were not only on ending the war in Ukraine but there had been several occasions, on which left-wing liberal Europeans in particular had been treated with contempt by representatives of the US government.
She cited a Signal chat about a potential US attack on Yemen that was leaked by The Atlantic, a US magazine, earlier this year, in which US Vice President JD Vance said that it would benefit Europe more than the US. “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” he wrote. And in response, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who now calls himself Secretary of War, wrote: “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Europe is in the midst of a cultural war
According to Pawel Zerka from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Europe is in the midst of a cultural war fueled by this mindset. He believes the US government is waging an open ideological battle in Europe too over values such as migration, climate change, “wokeism” and freedom of expression.
He says that Trump supports New Right movements wherever possible, normalizing its radical positions. The strategies supported by MAGA ideology include active interference in elections in favor of right-wing and conservative candidates, he explains, as well as the establishment of a kind of “MAGA International” through the creation of conservative networks and the promotion of right-wing media outlets, parties, and conferences such as the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
