The far right has seemed unstoppable in Europe. Here’s how Trump’s tariffs could change that | Nathalie Tocci

With populist leaders on the back foot and EU support at its highest in years, the US trade war could be an opportunity for the union

Donald Trump has unleashed a trade war on the world, and Europe, considered by Washington to be among the “worst offenders”, is a major target. After hitting European steel, aluminium and cars, this week Trump announced sweeping 20% tariffs on almost all EU imports. Europeans have seen this coming for a long time. Well before his re-election, officials in Brussels were drawing up plans on how the EU might respond to Trump 2.0 and a possible transatlantic trade war.

What might the political fallout in Europe be? The good news is that Trump’s trade war puts Trump-friendly far-right forces in Europe in a terribly uncomfortable position. It’s one thing for the European far right to support Trump in principle, or to support the administration’s tyranny over peoples it doesn’t care about, be it Ukrainians, Canadians, Mexicans or Palestinians. It’s quite another to defend Trump and his policies when the victims are countries that these far-right parties supposedly represent.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist