US
foreign policy
‘Cultivate
resistance’: policy paper lays bare Trump support for Europe’s far right
Text
signed by president seems to echo ‘great replacement’ theory, saying Europe
faces ‘civilisational erasure’
Jon
Henley Europe correspondent
Fri 5 Dec
2025 23.55 CET
Donald
Trump’s administration has said Europe faces “civilisational erasure” within
the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration, arguing in a
policy document that the US must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to
“Europe’s current trajectory”.
Billed as
“a roadmap to ensure America remains the greatest and most successful nation in
human history and the home of freedom on earth”, the US National Security
Strategy makes explicit Washington’s support for Europe’s nationalist far-right
parties.
The
document, with a signed introduction by Trump, says Europe is in economic
decline but its “real problems are even deeper”, including “activities of the
EU that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that
are transforming the continent, censorship of free speech and suppression of
political opposition … and loss of national identities”.
The
33-page exposition of Trump’s “America First” worldview appears to espouse the
racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk
becoming “majority non-European” and Europe faces “the real and stark prospect
of civilisational erasure”. It adds: “Should present trends continue, the
continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less.”
US
policies must therefore include “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current
trajectory within European nations” as well as enabling Europe to “take primary
responsibility for its own defence” and “opening European markets to US goods
and services”.
Responding
to the strategy document on Friday, Germany’s foreign minister, Johann
Wadephul, said the US remained a vital ally on security but “questions of
freedom of expression or the organisation of our free societies” did not fall
into that category.
“We see
ourselves as being able to discuss and debate these matters entirely on our own
in the future, and do not need outside advice,” he said.
The
policy document, released by the White House late on Thursday, underscores the
Trump administration’s clear alignment with Europe’s far-right nationalist
parties, whose policies centre on attacking supposed EU overreach and excessive
non-EU migration.
In
language that will appear extraordinary to close allies, it says the US should
“stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression and unapologetic
celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history”, adding
that Washington “encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this
revival of spirit”.
With
far-right parties in government, supporting rightwing coalitions or leading in
the polls in several EU member states, the document says the “growing influence
of patriotic European parties … gives cause for great optimism”.
The Trump
administration has repeatedly sought to foster closer ties with Europe’s
nationalist parties, including Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
In September a senior AfD party figure visited the White House for meetings
with senior officials.
On
immigration, the strategy document appears to endorse the “great replacement”
conspiracy theory, which claims ethnic white European populations are
deliberately being replaced by people of colour. It says it is “more than
plausible” that “within a few decades at the latest” some European Nato members
“will become majority non-European”.
It claims
Europe must “remain European, regain its civilisational self-confidence and
abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation”, arguing that the
continent’s lack of assurance is evident in its relationship with Russia.
As Trump
seeks an end to the Ukraine war that would most likely favour Russia gaining
territory, the document accuses Europeans of showing weakness. Despite a
“significant hard power advantage”, it says, many on the continent “regard
Russia as an existential threat”.
It argues
it is a “core interest of the US to negotiate an expeditious cessation of
hostilities in Ukraine” but that Washington “finds itself at odds with European
officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war perched in unstable
minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of democracy to
suppress opposition”.
It claims
that a “large European majority” wants peace in Ukraine but that this “is not
translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’
subversion of democratic processes”.
The
document’s publication came hours after the French president, Emmanuel Macron,
reportedly warned his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that the US
could “betray Ukraine on territory, without clarity on security guarantees”.
The
thrust of the US text echoes JD Vance’s brutal ideological attack on Europe at
this year’s Munich Security Conference, in which the US vice-president accused
EU leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and
running from voters’ true beliefs.
The
document concedes that Europe remains “strategically and culturally vital” to
the US, with transatlantic trade one of the pillars of the global economy and
US prosperity. It also says the US “needs a strong Europe to help us
successfully compete and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary
from dominating Europe”.
It adds
that Washington wants to “work with aligned countries that want to restore
their former greatness”.
The top
Democrat on the US Senate foreign relations committee, Jeanne Shaheen, said:
“This plan, and the administration’s approach, is riddled with contradictions.
President Trump rightly wants our European allies to step up on their own
defense but undercuts their ability to do so by actively promoting
far-rightwing, pro-Russian political parties.
“By
drawing an equivalence between our European allies and murderers in the
Kremlin, this strategy at least explains why President Trump has been so inept
at ending the war in Ukraine. The strategy claims to take a realist worldview,
but it fundamentally ignores the threat posed by Russia and China.”
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