A brash new transatlantic ultraconservatism is disrupting global politics, believing it is certain to dominate the world order. And, as is often the case when more difficult economic conditions take hold, migrants and liberal values have become the scapegoats.
In the US, such nationalistic sentiment has entrenched Make America Great Again (Maga) politics with the re-election of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, in the UK the outcome of the English local elections on May 1 cemented the rise of the Reform party, which can be explained as a sort of Make England Great Again (Mega) movement led by Brexit agitators Nigel Farage and Richard Tice.
Reform’s local election results, alongside its performance at the polls in the 2024 UK general election, is making it a serious contender to become the official opposition. The Conservative Party continues to wither away after yet another drubbing at the polls as punishment for years of austerity and party infighting, which had the UK cabinet on perma-shuffle for most of the past decade.
Elon Musk, Maga’s main donor and Trump confidante, may have to re-appraise Farage, who he said “does not have what it takes” to be leading Reform. It is not just disgruntled Conservative voters who are voting with their feet to Reform — Farage & Co have also taken some working-class voters from Labour, especially those who voted for Brexit. The Faragists are particularly popular with young men who gravitate towards the manosphere philosophies of Andrew Tate.
But neither Maga nor Mega has delivered the economic resurgence voters have hoped for. Trump’s tariffs have unleashed chaos and resentment in global markets, while Brexit continues to cast a long shadow over a reconfigured UK economy. Inflation and unemployment are also proving difficult to bring under control.
Trump has moved to assert the US more vigorously on the global stage, weighing in forcefully on the Russo-Ukrainian war, and urging Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, which is dragging on the US budget. Realising a little too late that Putin has been taking him around the houses in the guise of a cosy relationship, Trump has also compromised his relationship with the EU by leaning out of multilateral structures such as the UN sustainable development goals and the World Health Organisation.
The EU has responded by coalescing. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has aligned himself with the Macronistes by angling for a starring role in the “Coalition of the Willing”, a group of 33 countries centred on the EU and Nato to beef up military and intelligence support for Ukraine, which is surely irritating Putin. The US is not a member.
The Coalition of the Willing also includes Canada and Australia, which have recently unequivocally voted in the liberal governments of Mark Carney and Anthony Albanese. Carney is Mr Woke Capital himself, and has brought net-zero onto the policy agenda while coming out strongly against Trump’s tariffs and threats to colonise Canada. For his part, Albanese is essentially a socialist.
Under Trump, the global standing of the US is also diminishing, along with the tone normally associated with public office. A global Maga/Mega sea change is not a given, and much of the global pushback against tariffs and nationalistic deglobalisation will come from a resurgent solidarity in the Global South and the Brics nations, which have a different view of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Domestically in the US, many voters are already regretting bringing Trump back into the White House, while he remains blissfully defiant — “working from home” as he does, “retruthing” from a golf course in Florida.
• Dr Masie is a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics.
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