Dispatch columnist Nick Catoggio says President Donald Trump has plopped such a noxious odor on right-wing ideology that even ideological diehards are leaping out of windows to avoid him.
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“After 10 years of degrading bootlicking obeisance by the president’s many courtiers, it was startling to see someone who needs a relationship with Trump assert her dignity against his insults,” said Catoggio, speaking of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s epic takedown and denial of Trump’s claim that she “begged” him to “take a picture with him.”
In reaction Meloni exploded onto the news cycle, declaring that neither she nor Italy begs for anything.
Of course Trump said it, suspects Catoggio: “Casually demeaning someone because he bears them a grudge is as instinctive to Donald Trump as applying bronzer or bloviating about ‘strength.’”
“But those who need to stay on his good side — like, say, every Republican official in the country — are doomed to follow the Ted Cruz career arc between 2016 and 2021, broadly speaking,” Catoggio added. “That is, if Trump insults your wife, you find a way to let it slide and salute when he asks you to help him stage a coup.”
Additionally, if you’re a European leader trying to cobble NATO together and keep Trump from siding with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Catoggio said “the cowardice of the American leadership class” leaves you with few allies within the U.S. willing to support your resistance to Trump.
“And so the prudent, if pathetic, thing to do when an imperious postliberal goblin insulted you was to bite your tongue,” said Catoggio. “Not Meloni, though. She’s had enough.”
Still, Catoggio suspects Trump’s character and behavior on other matters is driving the Italian leader’s anger.
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“She’s a right-wing nationalist, like the president himself. She promotes Christian values and the traditional family model, and presumably she’d like to see that vision make inroads across the continent,” Catoggio said. But “Trump is killing her chances.”
“The more right-wing politics becomes associated with fat orange clownery, the less European voters will want any part of it,” said Catoggio — and she’s not the only right wing leader fearing for the stain Trump leaves on their argument.
Far-right European leaders, he said, have been running away from the president for months, in fact. Anger at the Iran war’s global impact on energy costs is a start, but Trump’s behavior is also to blame.
Jordan Bardella, the head of France’s leading nationalist party summed up Trump’s antics as, “not only erratic but also extremely unsteady and constantly shifting. … [We need to] allow powers that are a bit bewildered by the United States — and who no longer understand the comings and goings of the American president, particularly on defense — to be able to find in the French defense industry a backup option.”
“The incident with Meloni is simply another bewildering episode involving the American president that can only hurt the United States and make the global right he unofficially leads look petty, tactless, impetuous, and stupid,” said Catoggio. “Maybe Meloni’s irritation is less a product of her pride being wounded than her resentment at being saddled with a prominent ideological ally who’s discrediting their mutual cause. She’s doing what she can to re-dignify it.”
Catoggio added that congressional Republicans should meditate on Meloni’s streak of independence, but he added “we’re waaaaaaay past the point of salvaging the respectability of right-wing politics in the U.S.”
“So enjoy the Giorgian rebellion abroad,” he concluded. “It’s the closest to dignity from a conservative official that you and I will witness in 2026.”
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