00:00Let's talk a bit more then about Rubio's trip with Ketavan Gorjastani, our foreign editor.
00:05And Ketavan, look, Rubio in Slovakia, and then as we saw in our report there in Hungary,
00:10what do you make of his choice of European destinations?
00:14Well, look, it's no secret that the leaders of those two countries, Robert Fico in Slovakia
00:20and Viktor Orban in Hungary, are two of the most Eurosceptic and pro-Trump leaders in Europe.
00:26But Rubio's trip and choice of locations is way more than just going to see like-minded allies in Europe.
00:35It's also the concrete application of the new U.S. national security strategy
00:40that was released in December when it comes to how the U.S. sees Europe.
00:46And there are two points that are very clear here.
00:49One was that the national security strategy said that Europe, in the eyes of the Americans,
00:55faced a, quote, civilizational erasure due to, in part, European policies,
01:01especially when it comes to immigration, but also cratering birth rates and loss of national identities.
01:07All of these themes are very dear to the heart of Viktor Orban, for example.
01:13The second point made in the national security strategy was the idea that America
01:19should help Europe correct this trajectory towards civilizational erasure.
01:25And how to do that?
01:27Well, the Americans noted positively what they called the growing influence of patriotic European parties.
01:35They also insisted on the fact that America needed to cultivate resistance within European nation.
01:42All of these things pointing to American support for conservative, far-right nationalist parties across Europe.
01:50And you're seeing this being applied in Hungary and in Slovakia.
01:55Marco Rubio really building up on Donald Trump's endorsement on X or on Truth Social on Friday.
02:03Rubio saying,
02:04President Trump is deeply committed to your success, talking to Orban, because your success is our success.
02:11And it's not just Viktor Orban.
02:14It's not just Europe.
02:16Donald Trump has been endorsing leaders that are like-minded, conservative, nationalist leaders around the world.
02:23You have the example in Europe of Karol Lamprotsky in Poland, but also Javier Milley in Argentina, for example.
02:31This is something that U.S. president, up to now, usually shied away from, from taking sides in other countries'
02:39elections.
02:39That is done.
02:41Donald Trump is very clearly supporting Viktor Orban.
02:44And look, can this American support help Orban when it comes to the elections in April?
02:51Well, look, polls are showing currently that Viktor Orban's Fidesz party is lagging behind.
02:56The opposition leaders, Peter Major's TISA party.
03:02And Donald Trump's support, I was talking about how he endorsed other leaders around the world.
03:07That did help in some cases for Javier Milley.
03:12Clearly, the fact that Donald Trump said, well, if Javier Milley is re-elected, there is a $20 million bailout
03:20coming your way, Argentina.
03:22That clearly probably helped a little bit Javier Milley.
03:25But there have been instances where Donald Trump's support was not necessarily a help and sometimes was even problematic for
03:34those leaders.
03:35We saw it in Canada, for example, where he took sides for the conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre.
03:42But also in Australia, where some of the leaders were trying to sort of mimic the Trump style.
03:49And there was an element, an expression that was coined, which was the anti-Trump bump that helped liberal parties
03:58in reaction to Donald Trump.
04:00And recently, especially in recent months, you've seen the terror threats, the attacks on Greenland, for example.
04:08All of these things have had even the most populist, most pro-Trump parties in Europe actually say, well, we're
04:17not very comfortable with what you're doing right there.
04:20A few examples.
04:21You had a reform party in the UK criticize Donald Trump's tariffs.
04:26You had the national rally here in France criticize the attack on Greenland, the attack on the sovereignty of a
04:32European nation.
04:33Same thing for the AFD in Germany.
04:37These are all parties that usually are very much pro-Trump.
04:41And they are saying that they're not comfortable because it goes against their principles, the principle of putting the country
04:47first, which they apply in Europe.
04:49But they're also saying now, well, you're attacking the sovereignty of a country.
04:54So that could be a sort of pull here in the Hungarian election, especially because recent polls Europe-wide are
05:03showing that most Europeans, including voters of far-right parties, are growing increasingly uneasy with not only Donald Trump, but
05:13also the United States in general.
05:16And that might be why you heard Marco Rubio, and I'll finish with that, in Slovakia yesterday, insisting that the
05:24U.S. was not asking Europe to be a vassal of the United States, but to be a partner of
05:30the United States.
05:31All right.
05:31Thanks for your analysis.
05:32Ketavan Gorjastani for us there.
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