The most remarkably popular major political figure in the world right now is Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, who swept into the presidency in a landslide victory last summer — and who has, in defiance of the laws of contemporary political gravity, been building on her popularity ever since. Her approval rating just hit an astounding 85 percent, according to one poll, a significant jump from an already high level, and one that has come since she started publicly sparring with President Trump.

I’m not surprised: Often when Trump picks fights abroad he seems to give a significant political boost to his antagonists.

We’re living through a global wave of anti-incumbency, as you might have heard. But it isn’t always easy to perceive the ideological signal through the white noise of frustration.

The face of Europe’s new right, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, has only a 42 percent approval rating; Argentina’s anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei’s approval rating has been stuck below 50 percent. In Britain, Labour secured a historic victory last summer, but by the fall Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s net approval had fallen to negative-38, a decline of nearly 50 points since election day. . And while despondent liberals looking for success stories sometimes point to the center-left coalition in Denmark, support there for the party of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen slumped as low as 18 percent in November.

Sheinbaum’s approval is more than four times as high. For every Mexican who opposes her, there are now more than five who support her. And she is the face of an incumbent party, too.

There are many possiblelessons here for the global left, though Sheinbaum’s success is also idiosyncratic. She’s a climate scientist who embraces fossil fuels and a social democrat who uses the left-populist rhetoric of her predecessor. Obviously, Mexico and the United States have different needs and political climates, but in her five months as president, Sheinbaum has pursued priorities that look pretty familiar to those on the American left: an expansion of social-welfare spending, particularly on health care; rhetorical and policy emphasis on equality; investment in public infrastructure, especially transportation; and a more data-driven approach to crime and the drug trade.

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