Surprised to see US Republicans cozying up to the European far right? Don’t be | Cas Mudde

Before Trump, only relatively fringe American conservatives had open connections to the international far right. Today, the ties have mainstreamed

This weekend Texas senator Ted Cruz spoke about how we all face the same challenges, including a bold and global left, that seeks to tear down cherished national and religious institutions". Nothing to see here, you might think - except that he was not addressing a local branch of the Republican party in Texas, or a conservative US media outlet. He was speaking on screen to an audience of thousands in Madrid, at a meeting of the Spanish far-right party Vox. It was one of many recent outreaches to the global far right by US rightwing figures, which seem to have increased since the ouster of Donald Trump.

Is the so-called Populist International", so often foretold but never realized, finally taking shape? And will the US conservative movement play a leading role in it? Or is this more about domestic politics than global domination?

Cas Mudde is Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia, the author of The Far Right Today (2019), and host of the podcast Radikaal. He is a Guardian US columnist