Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidency has reportedly shocked the world.
According to Reuters, governments from Asia to Europe reacted with stunned disbelief on Wednesday to the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, while populists hailed the result as a triumph of the people over a failed political establishment.
CNN reports that global financial markets fell as US allies convened emergency meetings of their financial and security agencies to assess the impact of Republican candidate Donald Trump's ascension to the White House.
Trump's election as the 45th president of the United States reportedly rocked Washington's political establishment and sent shock waves overseas, as US allies and foes alike scrambled to understand how the real-estate mogul and political outsider had pulled off an upset victory and would change their ties to the world's most powerful country.
Marine Le Pen's father and founder of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, took to Twitter to say "long live President Trump!" and claim Trump as part of a worldwide populist wave. "The American people want Donald Trump to be the people's president. Today the United States, tomorrow France. Bravo!" Le Pen wrote.
According to CNN, far-right leaders in Holland, Belgium, Russia, the Czech Republic, Italy and Serbia, among other places, have also voiced support for Trump. The hard-right Greek party, Golden Dawn, went so far as to make a pro-Trump video starring neo-Nazis.
Immediate reaction from financial markets, however, was brutal. Asian stock markets fell, with Tokyo down almost 6%. The Dow futures markets slid almost 800 points, while the Mexican peso fell to a record low against the US dollar.
But Russians, who followed the election closely, praised the real-estate mogul's victory and called it a positive step for financial markets.
Meanwhile, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, described the result as a “huge shock” and questioned whether it meant the end of “Pax Americana.” the state of relative peace overseen by Washington that has governed international relations since World War Two, according to Reuters.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault reportedly pledged to work with Trump but said his personality “raised questions” and he admitted to being unsure what a Trump presidency would mean for key foreign policy challenges, from climate change and the West's nuclear deal with Iran to the war in Syria.
Prominent historian Simon Schama described a Trump victory and Republican control of both the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives as a “genuinely frightening prospect.”
“NATO will be under pressure to disintegrate, the Russians will make trouble, 20 million people will lose their health insurance, climate change (policies) will be reversed, bank regulation will be liquidated,” Schama told the BBC.
