An aftershock of Donald J. Trump’s election erupted in Romania last week in its first round of presidential elections when defiant voters selected Călin Georgescu, an outsider who insists government should work for its citizens, reject the woke agenda, and promote peace — against Biden administration pressure to further militarize the nation. Much like irrational accusations launched against Trump in 2016, Georgescu was immediately accused by mainstream outlets like Politico and BBC, plus anonymous social media accounts, of being a pro-Russia stooge. It’s an absurd accusation against a soil scientist, respected environmentalist, and university professor. Georgescu has worked for the United Nations Development Program and the nation’s Environment Ministry. He’s beloved by human rights activists in the Marshall Islands because, as a U.N. Special Rapporteur, he documented debilitating health impacts from nuclear testing. His candidacy is controversial because he’s independent. Georgescu supports Trump’s vision that it’s time to negotiate on Ukraine. He has already collaborated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. whose book The Real Anthony Fauci was translated into Romanian this year with an introduction by Georgescu. What’s new about this calm, well-spoken man (with a judo black belt) is that he’s pro-farmer, pro-faith, pro-family, and pro-national interest over a Western agenda indifferent to local needs — disturbing the military industry which coopted Romania’s political class, persuading it to prioritize weapons. Billions for Tanks & F-35s Romania shares two borders with Ukraine: a long land border to the north and an eastern coastal border. Romania quickly adopted an emergency order to generously support displaced Ukrainians following the Russian invasion almost three years ago. It continues to support over 170,000 refugees with various services including free transportation. However, the grueling conflict has had an indisputably negative impact on the country’s economy and standard of living. Romania’s current inflation rate is higher than any European Union (EU) country — food and energy prices have surged since the war. According to EU data, 32 percent of Romanians were at risk of poverty in 2023, again, the region’s highest rate. Another dataset found over 20 percent were actually living below the poverty line last year. Aspects of the rural economy that looked up in 2020-21 were hit hard due to the war. For example, tourism collapsed in the Danube Delta, Europe’s largest wetland located on the Black Sea at Romania’s Ukrainian border. Meanwhile, the Romanian government trumpeted a military spending spree that included $1 billion for Abrams tanks made in the U.S. and $7.2 billion for 32 American F-35s two months ago — the most expensive weapons buy in Romanian history. The Romanian army’s budget this year exceeded $21 billion — a 45 percent increase over 2023. Some of the expenses are tied to the construction of the largest NATO military base in Europe — Mihail Kogalniceanu, near the Black Sea, which will be bigger than the U.S.’s Ramstein, Germany base. If the country was super rich like the UAE, military spending might not matter, but its national debt has increased dramatically. Woke Agenda Voters can suss out party line truisms versus the fresh air of truth-tellers like Trump and Georgescu. Romania has been an enthusiastic American ally since the noxious dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was assassinated 35 years ago. Citizens welcomed NATO’s “Partnership for Peace.” Jubilant crowds mobbed President George W. Bush when he visited in 2002. Two years later, Romania entered NATO. People began sensing that under the Obama administration American influence aimed to displace national autonomy in order to impose a woke culture and use the country as a proxy against Russia — like Romania, an Orthodox country with a church-going population. An Obama-appointed ambassador was an outspoken proponent of gay marriage, marching in a Bucharest Gay Pride parade, inspiring local journalists to complain that he meddled in internal affairs. This year, the U.S. Embassy promoted the “diversity, visibility, resilience, and dignity of the LGBTIQ+ community in Romania,” which many continue to see as irrelevant to the American in-country mission. As a Redditor explained, Romanians “see how toxic and forced the LGBTQ propaganda is in the West, and due to our history with harsh communism, which imposed severe thought control measures, we naturally reject anything that resembles that.” If you pay attention to context and the preoccupations of regular citizens, Călin Georgescu’s victory in Romania wasn’t surprising at all — much as Donald Trump’s triumph wasn’t either. The Romanian Constitutional Court, appointed by ruling political parties, has ordered a recount of round one voting, creating uncertainty around the final presidential election, but it’s more time for Georgescu to expand his popularity, as Trump did. Victor Gaetan is a senior international correspondent for the National Catholic Register, a contributor to Foreign Affairs magazine, and the author of God’s Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy, and America’s Armageddon (Rowan & Littlefield, 2021). 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