“Shock” and “disbelief” are the words required to be included in the lede of every story about the world’s response to Donald Trump’s presidential win. They’re not wrong. But despite that shock and disbelief, leaders in other nations are having to figure out what stance to take. Russia’s Vladimir Putin was obviously not unhappy, saying “Russia is ready and willing to restore full-fledged relations with the United States.” It was an easy call for Europe’s nationalist far right:
“The people are taking their country back. So will we,” wrote Geert Wilders, the leader of a Dutch Euroskeptic party who has pushed for hard barriers against immigration.
In France, Marie Le Pen, the outspoken leader of France’s far-right National Front party, did not wait for the results to be announced before tweeting: “Congratulations to new president of the United States Donald Trump and to the American people, free!”
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Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, whose record of imprisoning opponents and restricting free speech has earned him condemnation from human rights groups, said he “looks forward to the presidency of President Donald Trump to inject a new spirit into the trajectory of Egyptian-American relations.”
But many others injected warnings or pleas into their responses:
“NATO’s security guarantee is a treaty commitment and all allies have made a solemn commitment — a solemn commitment — to defend each other,” [NATO Secretary General Jens] Stoltenberg said. “We have to remember that the only time that we have invoked Article 5, our collective defense clause, is after an attack on the United States, after 9/11.”
South Korea’s president congratulated Trump, but:
“North Korea should not misjudge the solidity of our alliance with the United States and our joint ability to respond” to provocations, Jeong Joon-hee, a government spokesman, said.
That sounds more aspirational than confident, a tone also struck by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and German and Chinese officials.
Mexico, so much the centerpiece of Trump’s anti-immigrant appeals, saw its peso drop to a record low, giving its officials a lot to deal with.