Ayuso and Abascal's competition to be the Spanish 'Donald Trump'

MadridIsabel Díaz Ayuso and Santiago Abascal sitting on a powerful motorcycle painted with the Spanish flag. It is not a real image – nor AI – but a Fallas puppet exhibited this week in Valencia. Although there is no alliance between them in real life – rather a dispute over the same electoral space in Madrid – their radical speeches and the sympathies shared by the Madrid president and the Vox leader in the international arena make the vision of this tandem not particularly jarring to the spectators of the Fallas monuments. Abascal's ties with the far-right world leaders are official and organic – through alliances in the Eurochamber or with foundations of this ideological space – while Ayuso has them from a more symbolic perspective. This is what happens with Donald Trump.

The President of the United States – even more of a protagonist at the Fallas than Ayuso and Abascal – is a reference for both and, in a way, they compete to represent Trumpism in Spain, however much he has become a controversial figure. In the midst of the war in Iran and while Pedro Sánchez openly confronted the Republican leader over the act of war, the Madrid president undertook an official trip to the USA. Three days in New York to meet with representatives of nearly a hundred companies, investment funds, and American start-ups in what was Ayuso's sixth official trip to the United States in five years. Although the Community of Madrid dissociated the coincidence with the moment of diplomatic tension – they had been preparing it for "months", they said – far from shying away from the association with Trump, Ayuso has publicly endorsed his initiatives in Iran, Venezuela, and Gaza.

This stance has generated numerous clashes with the Madrid opposition and the Spanish government – with whom there is a desire to contrast – as well as internal frictions with other more moderate sectors of the PP.internal frictions with other more moderate sectors of the PP. In the last control session at the regional Assembly, Més Madrid accused her of being "submissive" to "the United States and Israel, whom she defends more than Spain, and to the money owners." The party to the left of the PSOE has requested information in writing about the trip, which, in addition to these meetings, included attending an awards ceremony for the Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner. Ayuso, openly Zionist, has been included in its annual ranking of the 100 most influential people in the defense of Israel. In this 2026 she shares a list with Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Javier Milei, and Giorgia Meloni.

On the other hand, Abascal, who also boasts of friendship with the far-right leaders of the US, Israel, Argentina, and Italy, has not been included. It is not the only space in the Trumpist sphere that the Madrid president has occupied to the detriment of the Vox leader. A month before the trip to the US, the leader of the PP of Madrid participated remotely in a meeting of the Latino community at Trump's private residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. Ayuso is, in the words of the professor of political science at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, "the most promising disciple of Trumpism in Spain." Sánchez-Cuenca already gave her this title in May 2020, more than a year before Ayuso's first trip to the US as president of Madrid. "It has been amply confirmed in recent years," he concludes in a conversation with ARA.

"She has the most extreme and polarizing language in Spanish politics. Far above Vox. Like Trump, she is constantly disqualifying her political rivals in an uninhibited way," reflects Sánchez-Cuenca, although he points out that, beyond the style and the political message, in terms of "organic connections, Abascal is clearly the privileged partner" of the US president. The Vox leader has met with him, attended his inauguration, and a year ago received Trump's support at the CPAC conservative forum – Abascal spoke there and the American leader mentioned him from the stage. The PP leader was not there, and as a party, it has other international alliances, although Sánchez-Cuenca wonders "what would happen if Ayuso were to become president of the [state] PP".

The risk to the image

Despite these ties, Ayuso "falls short" and is "an admirer of Trump without going all the way," notes Sánchez-Cuenca. One example is that the Madrid president announced she would give the international medal of the Community of Madrid to the US and that the region would hold a special tribute on July 4th to mark the 250th anniversary of the country's independence, but that, faced with accusations of Trumpism, she emphasized that she was awarding it to a "nation," whether governed by "Republicans or Democrats." Beyond the internal problems it would generate for the PP, it can be explained by the fact that Trump is unpopular in Spain and the war in Iran, according to the latest CIS, generates the rejection of seven out of ten Spaniards. Although, to a lesser extent, it also generates reluctance among the right-wing electorate. In fact, Abascal has been struggling for months to balance this alliance with elements central to his political space, such as the defense of Spanish sovereignty, repeatedly questioned by Trump's decisions.