A Secessionist Abroad

WASHINGTON—Carles Puigdemont, the president of the government of Catalonia—bespectacled and shaggy haired at 54—surveyed the passing monuments and museums as we skirted the National Mall in his black SUV. This was his first time in the United States. “Seven million people visit here each year,” he informed me, gesturing vaguely toward one of the Smithsonian museums. “The same as the population of Catalonia.”

It was early afternoon on a cloudy Tuesday in March, and we were headed to The Monocle, a restaurant on Capitol Hill where generations of legislators and their coteries have hobnobbed over steaks and crab cakes, and where you might have to pass a signed photo of Dick Cheney to use the bathroom.

“During the Women’s March, the Mall was covered