Further efforts to create distance from the MAGA brand came from Jordan Bardella, president of France’s far-right National Rally. When asked about the Republicans’ midterm losses by a French radio show, Bardella said the “American intervention in Iran” had carried “very heavy consequences” for world economies.

“What is certain is that Donald Trump’s second term differs quite significantly, in its philosophy and foreign policy, from his first, during which his political ambition was to withdraw the United States from major global conflicts,” he said. 

Georgios Samaras, assistant professor of public policy at King’s College London, tells TIME that the scale of the Republican defeat sent “shock waves across the continent.”

“After two years of catastrophic economic management, [Trump’s] international standing is gone. It’s practically like the far-right [is] losing their global leader,” he says, adding that Trump’s loss is likely to be seen as “a gift to all liberals.”