LONDON (AP) — The verdict of U.S. voters was more decisive than most pundits and analysts had predicted. Trump secured victory Wednesday after surpassing the 270 electoral college votes needed to win. In a victory speech before the official declaration, he vowed to “put our country first” and bring about a “golden age” for America.
Here’s how leaders and others around the world are reacting:
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte congratulated Trump, saying that “I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO” in the face of “a growing number of challenges globally,” including “the increasing alignment of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.”
Trump was a strong critic of the North Atlantic military alliance during his first term, accusing its other members of failing to pull their weight. Earlier this year he said the United States would not defend NATO members that don’t meet defense spending targets.
Rutte emphasized the positive, praising Trump for his work persuading member states to ramp up defense spending and saying NATO was now “stronger, larger, and more united.”
America’s allies are – belatedly, some say – grappling with what to do if they cannot depend on the U.S. for their defense. Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, said it’s not just NATO. Washington's other allies in the Indo-Pacific, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and even Australia, “can no longer look for the U.S.A. to be a reliable partner in defense,” he said.
Nowhere are the stakes higher than for Ukraine – the U.S. is by far Kyiv’s biggest military backer as it battles Russian invasion. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, like Rutte, said he welcomed Trump’s “peace through strength” approach.
“This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “I am hopeful that we will put it into action together. We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership.”
No congratulations were forthcoming from Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declared that Russia-U.S. relations were at the “lowest point in history.”
European leaders rushed to congratulate Trump even before his victory was officially declared – some more effusively than others.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a “historic election victory” and said that “as the closest of allies, the U.K. and U.S. will continue to work together to protect our shared values of freedom and democracy.”
Like governments of U.S. allies around the world, Starmer’s center-left administration has worked hard to forge ties with Trump and his team. Starmer had dinner with Trump at Trump Tower in September.
France’s centrist President Emmanuel Macron offered congratulations, “respect and ambition.” Social democratic German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Trump and said he wanted continued close ties, even if “surely many things will be different under a Donald Trump-led administration.”
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose far right-led government is in some ways close to Trump politically, said Italy and the U.S. had a “strategic bond, which I am sure we will now strengthen even more.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that the EU and the U.S. "are bound by a true partnership between our people, uniting 800 million citizens. Let us work together on a transatlantic partnership that continues to deliver for our citizens.”
Europe’s populist politicians welcomed the victory of a politician they consider a kindred spirit.
“They threatened him with prison, they took his property, they wanted to kill him ... and he still won,” said Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
During his first term, Trump pushed to remake the Middle East by reconciling Israel and Saudi Arabia, and all eyes now are on how he intervenes in the region’s raging conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s election win “history’s greatest comeback.”
“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” he wrote on social media.
Netanyahu’s inner circle hopes Trump will allow Israel free rein against its enemies, but the president-elect is famously unpredictable, and the Israeli leader faces strong opposition at home. On Tuesday he fired popular Defense Minister Yoav Gallant amid divisions over the conduct of the war, a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country.
Washington is one of the key mediators of so-far unsuccessful Gaza cease-fire talks and has publicly accused Hamas of turning down several deals.
There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese government to Trump’s victory, but analysts were pessimistic, citing the likelihood of escalating tariffs and an intensifying confrontation over Taiwan.
“It is not all dark, but there are more challenges than opportunities,” said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “We are clear about the challenges. As for opportunities, we are yet to see them clearly.”
Long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea are a delicate fault line in the U.S.-China rivalry in Asia and likely will remain a major foreign policy concern for the next American president.
U.S. allies in Asia, apprehensive about China’s growing clout, clamored for Trump’s attention in congratulatory messages.
“I hope to closely cooperate with President-elect Trump to further elevate Japan-U.S. alliance and relations to even higher levels,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters, saying he hoped to speak to the president-elect soon.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol wrote on X: “Under your strong leadership, the future of the ROK-U.S. alliance and America will shine brighter,” using the initials of South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea. “Look forward to working closely with you.”
Tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly flaunted his expanding nuclear weapons and missile programs while providing Russia with munitions and troops to support its war in Ukraine.