Former UK Minister Hails Trump Victory as Triumph for National Conservatism

On 7 Novem­ber 2024, The Tele­graph report­ed David Frost’s analy­sis that Don­ald Trump’s re-elec­tion rep­re­sents the first major vic­to­ry for nation­al con­ser­vatism in West­ern pol­i­tics. The arti­cle begins:

Pres­i­dent Trump’s deci­sive vic­to­ry this week will change many things (though the dis­dain of the lib­er­al estab­lish­ment towards the views of ordi­nary vot­ers does­n’t appear to be one of them). It will take time to sink in. Pre­sump­tions about the way the world works are going to have to adjust. This is going to be par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult for Labour: their world­view is already so dis­con­nect­ed from the way the world actu­al­ly works that real­i­ty can only with dif­fi­cul­ty impinge upon it. Hap­pi­ly, their ideas are being over­tak­en fast by the new con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment emerg­ing across the West – one that will be gal­vanised by Trump’s vic­to­ry. It’s unde­ni­able that across West­ern coun­tries a dif­fer­ent kind of con­ser­vatism is emerging…

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Key Points:

1. Frost argues tra­di­tion­al con­ser­v­a­tive poli­cies favor­ing glob­al­iza­tion and inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions have lost their elec­toral appeal.
2. The arti­cle iden­ti­fies nation­al con­ser­vatism’s focus on bor­ders, nation­al iden­ti­ty, and social con­ser­vatism as the future direction.
3. Trump’s vic­to­ry is pre­sent­ed as val­i­dat­ing this polit­i­cal shift, with poten­tial to influ­ence con­ser­v­a­tive move­ments across West­ern nations.
4. The author urges British con­ser­v­a­tives to embrace this trend while main­tain­ing free-mar­ket prin­ci­ples and avoid­ing exces­sive protectionism.