Just when it looked as if Donald Trump might be mellowing came the unsettling symbolism of his weekend meeting with Nigel Farage, a seasoned pro of nativist politics. The leader of Britain\u2019s pro-Brexit forces and the U.S. president-elect, Mr. Trump\u2019s campaign manager explained, chatted \u201cabout freedom and winning and what this all means for the world.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Just what does it mean? Kindred spirits or co-conspirators, Mr. Trump and Mr. Farage owe their respective victories \u201d\u201c Mr. Farage\u2019s came in June\u2019s British referendum on leaving the European Union \u201d\u201c to the popular backlash against globalization that they fomented with their fearful claims about the negative impacts of trade agreements and immigration. Closing their borders, they told voters left behind by technological change and ill at ease with the new demography, was the only way to recover what, in truth, is lost forever.<\/p>\n
There is no understating the significance of the anti-globalization backlash in U.S. and British politics. These aren\u2019t just any two countries. The United States and Britain have been the guarantors of the international order since the Second World War. Their \u201cspecial relationship\u201d\u009d led to the end of the Cold War and the growth in world trade and investment flows that lifted living standards almost everywhere and ensured the global peace.<\/p>\n