Donald Trump is getting the last laugh after this weekend's elections in Europe, which forced a liberal, Trump-bashing prime minister to resign in the face of a right-wing political earthquake.
Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo announced he would be stepping down on Sunday after getting whacked at the polls - months after he warned that Trump's return to power would be a disaster for Europe.
Trump had a frosty relationship with the European Union during his presidency, driven by differences on defense spending and trade.
As he seeks the White House again, Trump has continued to share skepticism of NATO, alarming European globalists and U.S. Democrats.
In January, De Croo had said, “If 2024 brings us ‘America First’ again, it will be more than ever ‘Europe on its own’."
De Croo also was not shy about weighing on domestic politics in America, sharing his disapproval of the Supreme Court's repeal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which was made possible by Trump's court appointments.
But on Sunday night, De Croo was left wiping a tear from his eye as he acknowledged a thumping rejection of his Flemish liberal party, Open VLD.
Belgians fired about half the party's members in the Chamber of Representatives on "Super Sunday," which overlapped with Europe's Parliament elections.
"For us it was a particularly difficult evening, we lost. From tomorrow, I will be a resigning Prime Minister. But the liberals [will be back]," De Croo said.
The biggest winner in Belgium's elections was the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which grabbed 22%. Further to the right, Vlaams Belang underperformed expectations while placing second at 17%. De Croo's Open VLD lagged far behind with less than 7%.
The Belgian King Philippe accepted the resignation, De Croo later confirmed.
“The King has accepted my resignation,” de Croo said in an X post, adding that “the government will manage current affairs and prepare the transition to a new team.”
It could take a while for a new coalition government to form in the linguistically divided country, which is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia.
The results in Belgium were echoed throughout Europe as right-wing populist parties made big gains in Sunday's EU elections. In Belgium's neighboring France, Marine Le Pen's National Rally party came in first, prompting liberal President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve parliament and call snap elections.
