How world leaders in Ukraine, Mexico, Israel and more reacted to Trump’s win

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U.S. president-elect Donald Trump won’t arrive at the Oval Office until Jan. 20, but his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris is already prompting strong and mixed reactions from leaders around the world.

Mr. Trump’s first term saw him alienate many of the United States’ longstanding allies. His return to the White House, four years after losing to President Joe Biden, has huge international consequences for everything from global trade to climate change to multiple crises and conflicts.

He has pledged to ramp up a tariff feud with China and, without saying how, to end the conflicts between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah. He has also said he will end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office – something Ukraine and its supporters fear would be on terms favourable to Moscow.

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already congratulated Mr. Trump, vowing to continue working closely with its closest ally’s 47th president, as Ottawa braces for a possible trade war and influx of U.S. migrants trying to cross its southern border.

Here’s how other leaders around the world are reacting to his win:

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Ukraine

Mr. Trump’s looming return to the White House is seen as a potentially disastrous turn of events for Ukraine and its war with Russia. Kyiv’s ability to fight the full-scale invasion ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022 has been largely enabled by tens of billions of dollars of military support from the Biden administration But Mr. Trump has hinted at ending and that Ukrainians fear could be leveraged to force them to accept a peace deal largely on Mr. Putin’s terms.

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Yet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declined to publicly express anxiety at the uncertain future of U.S. support and was among the first world leaders to congratulate Mr. Trump.

“Congratulations to Donald Trump on his impressive election victory!” the Ukrainian leader wrote on social media shortly after the Republican candidate claimed victory in a speech to supporters on Tuesday.

“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together.”

Russia

Mr. Trump has spoken repeatedly in the past of his admiration for Mr. Putin, and his election is seen as a major gain for Russia. However, at first the Kremlin reacted cautiously – at least in public – to news of Mr. Trump’s win, with a spokesperson saying Wednesday that Mr. Putin had no immediate plans to congratulate the president-elect of “an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”

But on Thursday, Mr. Putin congratulated Mr. Trump, saying Moscow was ready for dialogue with him. The Russian President also said Mr. Trump had acted like a real man during an assassination attempt while speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 14.

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man,” Mr. Putin said at the Valdai discussion club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election.”

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European countries and NATO

European leaders rushed to congratulate Mr. Trump even before his victory was officially declared on Wednesday – and some more effusively than others, as the president-elect’s protectionist economic stances and past defence decisions raise concerns.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a “historic election victory” and congratulated Mr. Trump. France’s centrist President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz also offered their congratulations to the president-elect.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose far right-led government is in some ways close to Mr. Trump politically, said the two countries had a “strategic bond, which I am sure we will now strengthen even more.” Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban also welcomed the victory of a politician he considers a kindred spirit.

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But they were also among around 50 European leaders at a summit Thursday who called for a stronger defence posture across the continent that no longer necessitates a fundamental dependence on Washington.

The new NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, who was the prime minister of the Netherlands in Mr. Trump’s first term, congratulated the returning president – a vocal critic of alliance members that he says don’t spend enough on defence.

“I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO” in the face of “a growing number of challenges globally,” including “the increasing alignment of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran,” he said.

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Israel

Mr. Trump’s re-election is a relief to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters, who have clashed with the Biden administration, though it has continued to provide military aid and diplomatic support during its wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The conflicts have fuelled protests worldwide and put Israel in an increasingly isolated position internationally.

Israel’s leader congratulated Mr. Trump, saying the president-elect had made “history’s greatest comeback.”

Israeli government celebrates Donald Trump’s election triumph

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement Wednesday, which was echoed by the leaders of the hard-right nationalist religious parties in his coalition.

The Palestinian militant group, Hamas, which has been fighting Israel for more than a year in Gaza, said the election was a matter for the American people, but it called for an end to the “blind support” for Israel from the United States and urged Mr. Trump “to learn from Biden’s mistakes.”

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Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum assumed a reassuring tone after Mr. Trump’s re-election, even as the returning U.S. president threatens tariffs, mass deportations and unilateral action against drug cartels in the bordering country he has repeatedly denigrated in all three presidential runs.

She initially demurred on congratulating him but emphasized Mexico’s longstanding alliance with the U.S. in her first news conference after the announcement of Mr. Trump’s win.

Mexican President Sheinbaum emphasizes longstanding alliance with U.S. after Trump re-election

“Mexico always comes out ahead. We are an independent, free, sovereign country. There will be a good relationship with the United States, I am convinced of that,” Ms. Sheinbaum said on Wednesday, adding congratulations later in the day. “There’s no reason to worry.”

She said she spoke with Mr. Trump for the first time Thursday in a “very cordial” phone call, where she said they discussed the “good relations that we’ll have between Mexico and the United States.”

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China

Chinese President Xi Jinping joined the cavalcade of world leaders congratulating Mr. Trump on his imminent return to the White House, saying Thursday that “history tells us that China and the United States benefit from co-operation and lose from confrontation.”

It was a preview of a potential charm offensive capitalizing on Mr. Trump’s fondness for interpersonal relationships and grand deal-making to blunt his threats of 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese goods – while taking advantage of the geopolitical chaos many expect him to sow to expand China’s influence across Asia and the wider world.

China tried something similar in Mr. Trump’s first term, rolling out the red carpet to a man who had accused the world’s second-biggest economy of “raping” the U.S. on trade but was soon describing Mr. Xi as a friend and praising him as “very talented.”

However, the honeymoon didn’t last long before the Trump administration launched its long-threatened trade war with China, and Beijing now appears to be much more prepared than it was for his first term in office.

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African countries

Authoritarian regimes in Africa such as Zimbabwe, Uganda and Sudan are celebrating Mr. Trump’s election victory, seeing it as the potential end of sanctions the Biden administration levelled against their senior officials because of alleged corruption or human-rights abuses.

“Now that Donald Trump has won, the sanctions are gone,” Ugandan parliamentary speaker Anita Among told the country’s legislature on Wednesday, one of several officials who were hit with U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption and extrajudicial killings earlier this year.

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Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, among 11 officials sanctioned this year, was effusive in his praise for Mr. Trump, saying “the world needs more leaders who speak for the people.”

However, analysts have warned that many African countries will be vulnerable to Mr. Trump’s beliefs, including his long-standing hostility toward U.S. funding for foreign aid, peacekeeping missions, multilateral treaties and UN agencies. And his tariff promises, too, could spell doom for the trade concessions Washington provides much of the continent.

With reports from Mark MacKinnon, Geoffrey York, James Griffiths, David Agren, The Associated Press and Reuters