Overseas commentators equate Trumpism with racist nationalism in Europe

WASHINGTON — A growing number of foreign diplomats are complaining to U.S. government officials about Donald Trump.

According to the Reuters news service, they’re saying that the  “inflammatory and insulting public statements” Trump is making as part of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination are starting to undermine international stability.

What’s more, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that European commentators are equating the Trump phenomena with the racist, super-nationalist movements plaguing their countries. They’re also saying that European governments should take heed because the rise of Trumpism is an example of what can happen when people lose faith in their political leaders.

According to the AFP, the French daily Le Figaro said in a front page editorial that “In his own way, Trump is a whistleblower. He has reminded European political elites that it is dangerous to forget the language of those who vote for them.”

And Sandro Scocco, a progressive Swedish economist, likened Trump’s supporters to supporters of the far-right in Sweden. Because of growing income inequality, Scocco said, many Swedes feel betrayed by the mainstream parties.

However, in the U.S. many political observers are pointing out that a mainstream political party, the Republican party, paved the way for Trumpism.

For the past six years, Republicans in the House and Senate have blocked just about every proposal aimed at helping the poor and working families. Republican leaders have whipped up unprecedented hatred against a sitting president. And those same leaders gave a wink and a nod to nonsense such as the accusation that Barrack Obama is not American-born.

This weekend, Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney about “legitimizing” Donald Trump.

Last week, Romney called Trump a “fraud,” but had praised him in 2012 when Trump endorsed Romney’s presidential bid.

What’s worse in 2012, Romney ignored the “birther” ploy initiated in part by Trump. Wallace asked Romney if this didn’t help legitimize Trump and help propel him to become the front running candidate for the Republican nomination this year.

Romney ignored the question.

Trump endorsed by French fascist

Recently. French fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen endorsed Trump, tweeting, “If I was American I would vote for Donald Trump… may God protect him.”

Le Pen help found the National Front party, which advocates immigration restrictions, the death penalty, encouraging women to leave the workforce and become homemakers and Francocentrism. His skewed views eventually became too reactionary even for his own party and it expelled him last year for belittling the Holocaust. He then founded the Blue, White and Red Rally.

Le Figaro editorialized that “In France we love to mock Donald Trump, his crazy hairdo, his plastic wives, his tirades out of a low-budget western.

“If it is good to laugh, it can also be useful to open our eyes, especially in a country that has given a third of its votes to the National Front.”

Adding to the growing awareness of the Trump threat, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke about the “politics of fear” in a recent speech.

“In Germany and in Europe, something is gaining momentum in our domestic politics,” Steinmeier said. “And to be honest, I am also seeing it here in the United States during the campaign: it’s the politics of fear.”

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron has branded Trump’s comments as “divisive, stupid and wrong” and a petition to bar Trump from visiting the country has so far garnered more than 580,000 signatures.

Trump: “a threat to peace.”

Meanwhile, the Reuters news service reports that “As the [Trump] rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by certain leaders around the world. … European and Middle Eastern government representatives have expressed dismay to U.S. officials about anti-Muslim declarations by Trump that they say are being used in recruiting pitches by the Islamic State and other violent jihadist groups.”

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel has branded Trump as “a threat to peace and prosperity.”

Claudia Ruiz Massieu, Mexico’s top diplomat, said last week that Trump’s policies and comments were “ignorant and racist” and that his plan to build a border wall to stop illegal immigration was “absurd.”

Also last week, the German paper Der Spiegel said Trump was “the leader of an authoritarian movement full of hatred.

“His America would be frightening.”

“It would be a “global disaster” if Trump became president, writes Martin Wolf a British columnist. Wolf called Trump “grossly unqualified” and “a promoter of paranoid fantasies, a xenophobe and an ignoramus.”

Wolf drew possible historical comparisons with the rise of Adolf Hitler, warning: “American ‘Caesarism’ has now become flesh. It seems a worryingly real danger today.”

Finally, the AFP reports that the Frankfurter, Germany Allgemeine Zeitung, newspaper ran a headline about the Trump campaign that said “The Nightmare Continues.”

Photo: Well known French fascist, Jean Marie La Pen, has endorsed Donald Trump.