Quiet dismay, open glee: U.S. adversaries, allies around world react to historic Trump win

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A thunderstruck world took in Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S presidential election, with ordinary people and political titans voicing jubilation, dismay or bafflement on Wednesday as allies and adversaries struggled to recalibrate their vision of a vastly altered American landscape.

On Ukraine’s frosty battlefields, in bustling urban cafes in Europe and Asia, on Middle Eastern street corners, there were gasps and widened eyes as the news flashed on televisions and smartphone screens – but in some quarters, a certain sense of detachment over this faraway political earthquake.

World leaders swiftly weighed in, ranging from enthusiastic congratulations to more somber and circumspect assurances of continuity in the relationship with Trump, whose mercurial first presidency upended many longstanding diplomatic norms.

“History’s greatest comeback!” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on the platform X. French President Emmanuel Macron, in a message more typical of Washington’s closest Western allies, declared himself “ready to work together as we did.”

Hungary’s right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime Trump ally, called his election “a beautiful victory.”

While most Americans awoke to the news of Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris or followed the tallies into the bleary-eyed early-morning hours, people in much of the world were in daytime workaday mode when the race was called.

“In the bigger picture, the war isn’t going anywhere,” said Serhiy, a Ukrainian marine sergeant serving on the southern frontlines. In keeping with Ukrainian military protocol, only his first name was shared.

In a Seoul cafe with sweeping river views, South Korean media production company owner Jeon Ji, 35, said she had never seen such a polarized political climate.

“I am beginning to wonder if the U.S. might actually break out in civil war,” she said.

In Europe, where several dozen heads of state were set to gather Thursday at a summit in Budapest, Hungary, Trump’s victory was seen as holding major consequences for security, the economy and climate change.

The former and incoming president’s promise to end the war in Ukraine “within 24 hours,” coupled with his friendly posture toward Russian President Vladimir Putin, cast a cloud over what has been an overarching common goal for nearly three years, assisting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Nonetheless, Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, struck an optimistic note, saying Trump’s leadership would again “be key to keeping our Alliance strong.” In the same vein, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said she looked forward to working again with Trump on “a strong transatlantic agenda.”

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, a far-right leader who shares Trump’s aggressive posture against illegal immigration, vowed to work with Trump to strengthen their nations’ “strategic bond.”

But Europe’s left was appalled. Raphaël Glucksmann, a leading French socialist in the European Parliament, said Trump’s return to the White House will threaten Europe’s alliance with the United States.

“We will now find ourselves alone in Europe,” he said. “Alone in the face of war on our continent, alone in the face of Putin, alone in the face of the wave of far-right authoritarians sweeping through our nations and the world, alone in the face of the climate catastrophe. Alone.”

In an editorial, Le Monde, the leading French newspaper, lamented the return of a U.S. leader who “reserves his harshest words for his allies but spares the autocrats, who are seen as partners rather than adversaries.”

Joey Chao, a 32-year-old English teacher in Taipei, checked his phone throughout the day Wednesday for the latest election updates before Trump’s victory was sealed.

“There’s a little bit of shock,” he said. “People couldn’t imagine Trump winning again.”

With his criminal convictions and defense of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, the former president loomed large as a divisive political figure in Taiwan, Chao said. By contrast, few of his friends knew much about Harris at all.

“We feel that if Trump wins, there is more unpredictability in terms of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship,” he said. “But on the other hand, we are not worried about him giving up his tough stance on China.”

In the Middle East, where the Biden administration has struggled for the past year or more to contain spiraling hostilities, news of Trump’s victory left many shocked.

Israel is fighting multifront battles against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which launched a shock attack on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip more than a year ago that killed about 1,200 people, and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which began attacking Israel shortly thereafter.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies of Iran, which has also traded missile fire with Israel, raising fears of a wider regional conflict. In Tehran, a 25-year-old theater studies graduate named Hoda, who did not want her full name used for safety reasons, said she could not envision a positive result from Trump’s presidency.

“Nothing seems like it will be in our favor,” she said.

The catastrophic war in Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, was seen as one factor that hurt Harris among young voters and Arab-Americans in crucial swing states. In Lebanon, where health officials say Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,000 people over the past year, most of them in the past two months, there was an air of fatalism over the outcome.

Sanaa, a 26-year-old who was taking her dog for a walk along Beirut’s waterfront promenade and did not want to give her name for privacy reasons, said she expected little to change under a new U.S. administration, regardless of which candidate had triumphed.

“It’s the same either way,” she said. “Both Trump and Harris don’t care about us.”

King reported from Washington, Kim from Seoul, special correspondent Finnegan from Paris, Bulos from Beirut, Yang from Taipei and special correspondent Mostaghim from Tehran.