Erin Schaff/The New York Times
On a day when a fresh snowfall blanketed the White House, there was something apt about President Trump cozying up by a fireplace with a leader of a picturesque Alpine country.
But Mr. Trump’s Oval Office meeting on Wednesday with the leader, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria, had less to do with sleigh rides and hot chocolate than with their shared appeal to nationalism and determination to crack down on immigration.
Mr. Kurz vaulted to power in Austria in late 2017 with an anti-immigration message that challenged Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, after her country took in thousands of refugees who streamed across southern Europe from Syria and other war-torn Middle Eastern nations.
At 32, Mr. Kurz is the youngest leader of a government in the world. He is serving in a coalition with Austria’s far-right Freedom Party — a turn of events that alarms liberals in Europe but has made him extremely attractive to Mr. Trump and his aides.
He is a “rock star,” said Richard A. Grenell, the United States ambassador to Germany, who invited Mr. Kurz to lunch in Berlin. He is “one of the rising stars in the sovereignty movement,” said Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, who has tried to build a front of populist leaders across Europe.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump granted Mr. Kurz a one-on-one meeting and an expanded session with his senior aides — the kind of attention that leaders of smaller countries almost never get, save for the prime minister of Ireland around St. Patrick’s Day.
As Mr. Trump and Mr. Kurz sat in front of the fireplace, the president mostly marveled at Mr. Kurz’s age — the chancellor is five years younger than Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
“He’s a very young leader, I have to tell you,” Mr. Trump said, turning to his guest. “You are a young guy; that’s pretty good.”
Leaning forward in his chair, Mr. Kurz interjected, “But the problem with the age is getting better from day to day.”
“Someday you won’t be saying that,” the president said, in what for him…
