Another Hitler? How world leaders see Donald Trump

WASHINGTON — Foreign politicians are responding to Donald Trump's unvarnished world views with equally undiplomatic candor.

Some of his many detractors have compared him toAdolf Hitler, while a small group admires his blunt views and forceful personality.

Among the foreign politicians who have spoken out about the Republican presidential front-runner, only Russian President Vladimir Putin and far right-wing politicians who share Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim views have praised him.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto delivered one of the harshest rebukes Monday, telling the Excelsior newspaper that Trump's "strident tone" is reminiscent of dictators Benito Mussolini and Hitler, populists who rode a tide of economic discontent to absolute power.

"There have been episodes in the history of humanity, unfortunately, where these expressions, this strident rhetoric has only really been (a) very fateful stage in the history of mankind," he said.

Peña and other Mexican politicians are furious over Trump's vow to build a wall to keep Mexican migrants out of the United States — and make Mexico pay for it.

"I'm not going to pay for that (expletive) wall," former Mexican president Vicente Fox told Fusion's Jorge Ramos last month.

Clearly, the possibility of a Trump presidency has provoked "a feeling of desperation" in Mexico, said Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

It's not just Mexico worried about the prospect of a Trump presidency, said Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Trump's promise to “Make America Great Again” represents an isolationist policy that reflects the frustration of many American voters, but it is a viewpoint that worries world leaders, Richardson told USA TODAY.

“The world laments that because, despite our faults, the world wants us to lead," Richardson said.

In Europe, which is coping with a migrant crisis, German Vice Chancellor Sigma Gabriel said that Trump and "all these right-wing populists are not only a threat to peace and social cohesion, but also to economic development." Gabriel lashed out in an interview with German publication Welt am Sonntag on Sunday.

In December, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Trump's remarks calling for a temporary ban on Muslims to the U.S. are "divisive, stupid and wrong." Some members of the British Parliament want to bar Trump from visiting their country.

In the Middle East, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud said Trump should withdraw from the U.S. race.

The pair got into a social media war in late January after Trump tweeted a photoshopped image of Fox News host Megyn Kelly standing next to the Saudi prince and claimed erroneously that the prince is co-owner of Fox News.

The Saudi prince, who is a minority investor in Fox News' parent company, complained about the image, pointing out that in the 1990s he helped bail Trump out of financial difficulties.

Trump also had a run-in with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The candidate called off a planned visit to Israel to meet Netanyahu after the Israeli leader criticized his plan to ban Muslim immigration to the United States.

Ecuador's leftist president, Rafael Correa, jabbed Trump, saying he would enjoy a Trump presidency because "it would be very bad for the United States."

“His discourse is so dumb, so basic, that it would ... help socialist politicians in Latin America, Correa told the Ecuadorian newspaper El Dia.

Putin, among the few to praise Trump, called the American business mogul "an outstanding and talented personality."

Other admirers include Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of France's far-right, anti-immigration party, the National Front.

"If I were American, I would vote Donald Trump," Le Pen tweeted.

And Geert Wilders, the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, tweeted that Trump would be "good for America, good for Europe. We need brave leaders."

Whether for or against Trump, world leaders should butt out of American politics, said Danielle Pletka, a Republican and foreign policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

“It’s none of their bloody business,” Pletka said. “This is our election, not theirs.”