Decoding Global Reactions to Trump’s Victory

DEEP DIVE — It was, as Axios reporter Zachary Basu put it, “the most astonishing, gravity-defying comeback in the history of American politics.” But Donald Trump’s victory was also a thunderbolt felt well beyond U.S. shores. From the Middle East to Ukraine, the halls of NATO to those in the Kremlin, and in China and other parts of East Asia, Trump’s return to the presidency brings a blend of hope, fear and uncertainty. 

World leaders congratulated Trump on Wednesday – some more warmly than others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a longtime ally of the president-elect, called Trump’s win “history’s greatest comeback”; India’s Narendra Modi cheered the victory of his “friend”; and Hungary’s President Viktor Orban, the leader Trump singled out for praise in his September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, congratulated Trump for “his enormous win…a much needed victory for the world!”