Defeating Marine Le Pen by a heavy margin, Emmanuel Macron is now France's president-elect.

This isn't just a Macron victory. It's a clear defeat for those who believed Le Pen was Europe's Trump (she never was). Nor was Le Pen the candidate of French independence. Supporting Brexit and opposing Le Pen are not mutually exclusive.

Still, what does Macron's election mean for the United States?

Good things, I think.

Consider national security. Unlike Le Pen, Macron is avowedly pro-American. He supports NATO and cooperation on issues of shared concern. This includes countering Iranian influence in the Middle East and the rise of Islamist terrorist organizations in Africa. But Macron is also more questioning, let us say, towards Vladimir Putin. This is also a good thing. As I've explained, there is nothing wrong with President Trump wanting good relations with Russia. But there is a lot wrong with believing that Putin wants to have good relations with the U.S. Macron's arrival offers the prospect on renewed economic pressure — and western unity — in challenging Putin to abandon Syrian President Bashar Assad, for example. Unless we see that pressure, Putin will keep pushing against U.S. interests around the world.

We should also expect good things on trade. Again, unlike Le Pen, Macron is pro-trade. He wants to make France more economically productive, competitive, and outward-looking. That matters in the context of U.S. trade with France.

Last year, U.S. exports to France stood at just under $31 billion, and imports at $46.8 billion. Yet as a key influencer on Angela Merkel, Macron has the ability to push for more liberal trading arrangements between the European Union and the U.S. This is a good thing for American workers. Because of France's comparative high-wealth economy, Americans stand to benefit from increasing consumer demand in France. If we can reduce French subsidies for their domestic industries, we'll make high-tech, high-value American goods more accessible to the French people. Had Le Pen won, she would have directed France's foreign intelligence service, the DGSE, to increase its already substantial espionage campaign against U.S. companies.

Ultimately, the American benefit of Macron's election is his general approach to things. He is the American friend that Le Pen will never be. She believes in nationalist sectarianism and economic statism. Both those agendas run counter to our interests. Correspondingly, while American conservatives might not find Macron ideal, his presidency is a good match to our interests and ideology.

Tom Rogan (@TomRtweets) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is a foreign policy columnist for National Review, a domestic policy columnist for Opportunity Lives, a former panelist on The McLaughlin Group and a senior fellow at the Steamboat Institute.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.