Sep 10, 2026 · 1h 16m
Europe’s immigration backlash strengthens populist politics
Victor Davis Hanson: Why Europe Is Turning Against Mass Immigration
The discussion links electoral shifts, migration protests, and Trump’s resilience to a broader crisis of confidence in established political institutions.
- 1European voters are turning toward populist parties as frustration with immigration and establishment politics intensifies.
- 2Hanson argues that legal and political efforts to marginalize Trump have strengthened his movement rather than ended it.
- 3The conversation connects assimilation, labor, media polarization, and political identity to widening cultural divisions.
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Hanson recalls his father’s service aboard a B-29, using the dangers faced by bomber crews to reflect on courage, responsibility, and civic formation.
The brief
Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler frame Europe’s immigration backlash alongside Donald Trump’s political survival, arguing that pressure from established institutions has energized rather than contained populist movements.
Germany’s AfD showing and anti-migrant protests in Dover are presented as expressions of anger over immigration, border policy, cultural change, and leaders seen as detached from public concerns.
The discussion broadens into work, assimilation, race, media algorithms, and political identity, with Hanson linking declining civic expectations and personalized news feeds to deeper polarization.
Hanson’s account of his father’s service aboard a B-29 provides the episode’s most personal turn, contrasting wartime courage and responsibility with contemporary arguments over labor and citizenship.
The closing discussion returns to The Counterrevolution, presenting Trump’s comeback as part of a larger struggle over political legitimacy, revolutionary socialism, and the future of Western institutions.
Books & mentions
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The Counterrevolution
Hanson’s book develops the episode’s central account of Trump’s political comeback and the forces behind the MAGA movement.
Carnage and Culture
This earlier Hanson work extends the discussion of Western institutions, military history, and cultural traditions.
My Dying Citizen
It offers a related examination of the political, cultural, and institutional decline Hanson sees in the United States.