World Leaders React to Trump Victory
World leaders hoping for a Clinton victory are coming to grips with a new reality, while those who were hoping for a Trump victory are exuberant.
"The Americans are taking their country back," tweeted Dutch politician Geert Wilders, famous for his opposition to Islamization in Europe. He called the Trump win "a historic victory" and "a revolution."
"I hand over the mantle to @RealDonaldTrump! Many congratulations. You have fought a brave campaign," acting UKIP leader Nigel Farage tweeted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "President-elect Trump is a true friend of the State of Israel, and I look forward to working with him to advance security, stability and peace in our region."
Other leaders recognized that, like it or not, Trump's victory was based on real dissatisfaction with the status quo and globalism.
"Trump's election is an unmistakable rejection of a political establishment and an economic system that simply isn't working for most people," the socialist leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said.
"After Brexit and this election, everything is now possible. A world is collapsing before our eyes. Dizziness," the French ambassador to the U.S. Gerard Around tweeted.
French President Francois Hollande said Trump's victory "opens a period of uncertainty."
Influential EU lawmaker and former Belgian Prime Minister and Guy Verhofstadt said, "We cannot be dependent anymore on the U.S. We have to take charge of our own destiny."
Trump's unexpected and overwhelming victory gave hope to European leaders who are viewed as political outsiders in the European Union.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Front party in France and a candidate for the French presidency, congratulated Mr. Trump on Twitter and declared the American people "free!" She called it "good news for our country."
Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has been highly critical of the EU, wrote on Facebook: "What a great news. Democracy is still alive."
Closer to home, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that "Canada has no closer friend, partner and ally than the United States."
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto did not congratulate Trump on his victory, but rather the U.S. for its electoral process.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin, extending an olive branch, said, "We are ready to do our part and do everything to return Russian and American relations to a stable path of development."
