🔗 Share this article

On the very date Donald Trump was presented with a tailor-made "peace prize" from his recent friend, FIFA president "Gianni" Infantino, his government released an equally flamboyant security policy document. This fairly brief report drips with pure Trump and Trumpism. It opens with the characteristically modest assertion that the president has rescued "the United States and the globe – back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster."

Even though the strategy largely formalizes the ongoing actions and rhetoric of Trump and his team, it must be heeded as a grave caution for the world, and for Europe specifically.

A Blueprint of Interference and Civilizational Anxiety

The document espouses an aggressive form of foreign-policy meddling where the US explicitly sets the goal of "promoting European strength." Its language seems lifted directly from addresses by the Hungarian Prime Minister during the much-discussed migration emergency of 2015-16: "We want Europe to stay European, to regain its cultural self-assurance." More worryingly, the document claims that Europe's "economic decline is eclipsed by the genuine and starker prospect of cultural extinction."

The entire section dedicated to Europe is steeped in decades of European far-right ideology and rhetoric. The EU and its migration policies are held responsible for "transforming the continent and creating strife, suppression of free expression and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence." According to the document, if "present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is not at all clear whether some European countries will have economies and militaries powerful enough to be reliable allies." Indeed, the Trump administration asserts that "within a few decades at the latest, some NATO members will become predominantly non-European."

"American diplomacy should continue to champion genuine democracy, free speech, and proud commemorations of European nations’ unique heritage and history."

Core Theories of the Far Right

These arguments carry powerful overtones of two concepts seen as core for contemporary right-wing circles. The first is Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the West," whose thesis on the cyclical decline of civilizations was employed by the German far right to attack the "perversion" and "enfeeblement" of the democratic Weimar Republic. The second is "The Great Replacement," released in 2011 by French novelist Renaud Camus, who transformed long-existing "native" fears into a more overt conspiracy theory, accusing European elites of using immigration to replace restive "native" populations and import a more docile and dependent electorate.

It is the nationalist fantasy encapsulated in both ideas that grants the Trump administration the authority, if not the duty, to intervene in European affairs, the document implies. And it is evident where it sees its allies: "The United States encourages its political allies in Europe to advance this revival of spirit, and the growing clout of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism."

The Goal: "Make Europe Great Again"

In other words, the US contends that it is key to its national security to "Restore European strength," and that the European far right is the only movement that can achieve this. Therefore, its "overarching strategy for Europe" prioritises "fostering opposition to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations" – meaning the far right – and "strengthening the robust nations of central, eastern, and southern Europe" – in particular "aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness" – such as Hungary and Italy.

While the document remains vague on methods, it is apparent that a key aim is to push Europe to adopt a sweeping policy on freedom of speech, closer to the US model – particularly regarding right-wing speech – and not limited to social media. Another is to normalise relations with Russia; or, as the document calls it, to "reestablish strategic stability with Russia." Although the country is not directly called a future ally, the Trump administration clearly does not regard Russia as an enemy either.

An Ideological Blueprint: The Monroe Doctrine

In a broader sense, the national security strategy takes its inspiration less from the glorified US of the 1950s and more from the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Articulated by President James Monroe, this warned European powers not to meddle in the "western hemisphere," which he declared to be the US’s sphere of interest. The Trump administration’s policy document promises to "implement a Trump corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, which entails the US "enlisting" countries worldwide that wish to help protect US national interests.

This is necessarily new – recall JD Vance’s speech at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, where the vice-president unleashed an assault on Europe’s democratic model. But perhaps now that it is published in an official document, European leaders will finally realize that the stance is serious. And if the document is too long or vague for them, it can be condensed in plain and concise terms: the current US government believes that its national security is most enhanced by the demise of liberal democracy in Europe. To put it bluntly, the US is not only an unwilling ally; it is a willing adversary. It is time to respond appropriately.