The great globalist experiment has failed economically, socially and culturally, says Matthew Goodwin

Failed economically. Failed socially. Failed culturally. And crucially, it has failed the very people it was supposed to help. For decades, Western governments were told that borders didn’t matter, that nations were outdated, and that mass migration was simply progress.

That industry could be outsourced, energy dependence ignored, and social cohesion treated as an afterthought.

Donald Trump’s message this week was simple: America is done with the globalist illusion. Tariffs are back. Borders are back.

Energy independence is back. And the era of sacrificing ordinary citizens for abstract economic theories is being challenged head-on.

But the most explosive part of Trump’s speech wasn’t economic it was civilisational.

When he warned that parts of Europe are becoming unrecognisable, he was describing something millions of people can already see and feel. Not gradual change. Not diversity with moderation.

But demographic transformation imposed from above without public consent, without public debate, and without a serious plan for social integration.

Look around Europe’s great cities: London, Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Berlin. They are changing at a pace no society has ever absorbed without tension. Entire districts where the native population is now a minority.

Capital cities where schools are majority-minority, where shared language and norms no longer fully exist. Public trust is declining. Politics is fragmenting. And this didn’t happen by accident.

It was a choice made by elites who never asked the public, and who punished anyone who raised concerns by branding them misinformed or far-right.

Donald Trump did not create this reality. He named it this week. And that is why his words have resonated.

Because nations are not spreadsheets. They are communities held together by shared culture, history and belonging. And when you stretch that fabric too far, too fast, it tears.

The real question is not whether Donald Trump is right but why Europe’s leaders are still pretending that, on globalisation and mass migration, he isn’t. Now, this evening, we’ve also had further developments.

Sir Keir Starmer has pulled his Chagos Islands bill following opposition from the United States.

The legislation, due to be debated in the House of Lords on Monday, was postponed tonight as we were coming on air, after Conservative MPs warned it could breach a 60-year-old treaty with America affirming British sovereignty over the islands. It has now been delayed to an unknown future date.

Meanwhile, the White House has told GB News that President Trump is right to argue America’s contributions to Nato far exceed those of other allies.

The president has even suggested putting the alliance to the test by invoking Article Five to help defend the US southern border.

Sir Keir Starmer, however, has hit back at Donald Trump’s comments on British troops in Afghanistan, calling them “insulting and frankly appalling”, while Downing Street said the president was wrong to diminish Nato — and the role played by British forces in Afghanistan.