““If we learn lessons from history, from looking at the way he led the first four years of his mandate, it is obviously a threat””
This is what European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde had to say about the prospect of Donald Trump winning another term as president of the U.S. in elections scheduled for November 2024.
Speaking in an interview aired on TV channel France 2, Lagarde said the possibility of another Trump presidency is “obviously a threat” as she pointed to the Republican candidate’s previous record on free trade, global warming, and NATO.
“It is enough to look at trade tariffs, the commitment to NATO, the fight against climate change,” Lagarde said. “In these three areas alone, in the past, U.S. interests were not aligned with those of Europe.”
Lagarde, however, brushed aside concerns the U.S. might pull its support for Ukraine in the event of a Trump victory, as she said the U.S. has a “number of elected members who are deeply hostile to Russia’s horrific war… who will continue to finance and support Ukraine.”
Trump is currently well ahead of his Republican party rivals in the race to run as the GOP’s candidate to become president of the U.S., according to polls aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.
The U.S. former president is currently polling at around 60% among voters in the Republican primaries. His closest rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are both currently polling at rates of just 12% by comparison, while Vivek Ramaswamy is polling at 4%.
Lagarde, who previously headed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2011 to 2019, also ruled out any notion of leaving her current job to take up a position in the French government, in which she previously served as a minister under President Jacques Chirac from 2005 to 2008.
“I would be very honored to serve France again, but I am on a mission,” the 68-year-old ECB chief said, as she set out her commitment to fighting Eurozone inflation. “Our objective is price stability. We are winning this battle.”
This story originally appeared on Marketwatch
