WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has received a lot of negative responses to his outright declaration that he is a nationalist, and on Sunday, the leader of one of America's oldest and closest allies added his voice to the critics' chorus.

Without mentioning Trump by name, French President Emmanuel Macron said "nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism" at a gathering of world leaders in France to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the end of World War I.

Macron defined nationalism as saying, "'Our interest first, who cares about the others?'" in a comment evoking the "America First" philosophy Trump has long embraced.

Many observers have called Trump a nationalist since he entered the political ring, and he warmly embraced the label an Oct. 22 rally in Houston ahead of the midterm elections.

“A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can’t have that,” Trump said.

"You know, they have a word – it’s sort of became old-fashioned – it’s called a nationalist. And I say, really, we’re not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, okay? I’m a nationalist. Nationalist. Nothing wrong. Use that word. Use that word."

When asked by CNN's Jim Acosta the next day if he was concerned that his embrace of the term could be construed as "coded language" or a "dog whistle" to Americans embracing a racist ideology, Trump said he was unaware the term carried any racist connotation and defended his use of the label.

"I love our country, and our country has taken second fiddle," the president said, arguing that "we're giving all of our money, all of our wealth to other countries and then they don't treat us properly."

Then, last week after the midterms, when "PBS NewsHour" correspondent Yamiche Alcindor asked Trump if he might be emboldening white nationalists, Trump told her she had asked a "racist question" and cited his poll numbers among African-Americans.

Trump's statements repeat themes that have been central to his political identity since he first declared himself a candidate for president. His explicit promise to put "America first" is a clear expression of his nationalist ethos.

Nor is his embrace of the term new – although it was never quite so full-throated.

While once again denouncing many free trade agreements as unfair to the United States, Trump told reporters at the White House in February 2017, that he is a nationalist "in a true sense."

Foreign policy expert Max Boot, in a radio interview on the "Michelangelo Signorile Show," noted that the "word nationalism is not inherently toxic."



But "in the 20th century, nationalism has come to be associated with far-right politics, with fascism, with leaders like Mussolini, Hitler, Pinochet, Franco and others. And that is perhaps part of the reason why previous American presidents did not describe themselves as nationalists. They called themselves patriots."

Boot, a conservative and Trump critic, called it "somewhat reminiscent of the way (Trump) adopted 'America First' as an earlier campaign slogan, seemingly oblivious to the fact that this was the name of the isolationist and pro-fascist policy of the 1930s, and now this is kind of more of the same."

Here's how John Breuilly, a professor of nationalism at the London School of Economics, summarizes nationalist belief in his book, "Nationalism and the State":

There exists a nation with an explicit and peculiar character. The interests and values of this nation take priority over all other interests and values. The nation must be as independent as possible. This usually requires at least the attainment of political sovereignty.

That definition appears to sum up Trump's political philosophy.

"Now there is no question that on such criteria, Trump is a nationalist," Breuilly told USA TODAY in an email. "However, so is Gandhi, Nehru, Sukarno, F.D. Roosevelt. Most polls in most states today show that most people are proud of their nation and wish to protect and promote its interests. In that sense, most people in the world could be regarded as nationalists."

But Breuilly notes that people seem to mean something different when they refer to Trump as a nationalist.

"Nowadays we often find terms like 'ethno-nationalist' or 'far-right nationalist' or 'populist nationalist' or 'illiberal nationalist' used for people like Trump," he said.

Without context, "the word 'nation,' and hence 'nationalist' is empty. Once we have added these other terms, they are the really significant ones," Breuilly said.

Steve Bannon, the former White House adviser who helped Trump craft his campaign, has long embraced nationalism and rejected "globalism." The right-wing website he edited, Breitbart, regularly expounded on such themes and has continued to do so after Bannon's departure.

After Trump's speech in October, the site highlighted Trump's nationalist declaration on Twitter.

Breitbart's association with the neo-fascist movement calling itself the "alt-right" has led to many people conflating nationalism with "white nationalism," which not only claims a given nation should take priority, but that the white race should be protected and valued above all others.

In Europe, many nationalist movements that oppose an international world order and immigration into the continent are often overtly aligned with white nationalists and anti-Semitic groups.

For many of the president's critics, Trump's embrace of the nationalist label signaled that he also embraces the racism and xenophobia associated with those movements.

"Does Trump know the historical baggage associated with this word, or is he ignorant? Honest question," tweeted former President Barack Obama's ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul.

"Trump's 'I'm a Nationalist' comment will likely represent the biggest boon for white supremacist recruitment since the film Birth of a Nation glorified the Klan in 1915 and gained the KKK 4 million members by 1925," tweeted reformed neo-Nazi Christian Picciolini.

Film director and liberal activist Carl Reiner compared Trump's nationalist embrace to Adolph Hitler in a tweet.

Several media outlets noted the words of late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who warned of a "half-baked, spurious nationalism" in a thinly-veiled reference to Trump during an October 2017 speech.

They also pointed to words of former President George W. Bush, who decried "nationalism distorted into nativism" that same month.

But other presidents have used the term positively in the past. During a speech in Kansas in 2011, former President Barack Obama invoked Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 call for a "new nationalism."

"We still believe that this should be a place where you can make it if you try," Obama said. "And we still believe, in the words of the man who called for a New Nationalism all those years ago, 'The fundamental rule of our national life' he said, "the rule which underlies all others – is that, on the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together."

Several observers speculated that Trump's hearty embrace of the nationalist label is aimed to fire up his political base heading into the midterm elections.

"The president's not really a nationalist," former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN host Chris Cuomo. "He's an antagonist, he's not a nationalist."

"He's doing it because he wanted to antagonize people. He understands that he's a great wrecking ball for that establishment. And he knows when that ball hits into the establishment, it galvanizes his base and he instinctively knows it will turn out more voters for him come the midterm elections," Scaramucci said.

Trump has a long history of embracing, adopting and co-opting terms that are initially considered negative or off-limits.

Analysis:Trump is a master of language

He and his supporters embraced Hillary Clinton's "deplorable" label as a badge of honor. And the president has successfully managed to make "fake news" his own insult for media coverage he dislikes when it originated as a term for the proliferation of false news stories on social media during the 2016 election.

"Mostly, Trump’s invocation of nationalism is yet another invitation for Americans to divide themselves over its true meaning and his use of it. Trump, as he often does, is goading his opponents to read the worst into his words, while knowing that his own supporters will rally around the term and believe those opponents are simply anti-Trump or even anti-American," wrote The Washington Post's Aaron Blake.

"In some ways, Trump’s use of the word was long overdue," Blake said.

Contributing: David Jackson, USA TODAY