In a recent interview with Politico, President Donald Trump criticized Europe as “decaying” and “weak” on immigration and Ukraine, deepening the rift between the United States and some of its oldest allies.
Trump’s remarks, published Tuesday, come on the heels of his administration’s new national security strategy. Critics have criticized the strategy for recycling far-right tropes about civilizational “erasure” in Europe. “Most European nations, they’re decaying,” Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted Monday. The 79-year-old billionaire, who built his political rise on inflammatory language about migrants, said that Europe’s policies on migrants were a “disaster.”
“They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak,” Trump said, adding that there were “some real stupid ones” among Europe’s leaders.
European leaders have been trying to woo Trump since his return to office in January, especially on maintaining US support for Ukraine against Russia. However, Trump’s latest comments will likely intensify the alarm in European capitals.
A French minister, Alice Rufo, said Tuesday that the US security strategy was an “extremely brutal clarification of the ideological stance of the United States.”
Ukraine and Elections
Trump also criticized European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war. Many in Europe fear that this plan will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. “NATO calls me daddy,” Trump said, referring to comments by the military alliance’s leader Mark Rutte at a summit in June when leaders backed Trump’s call to raise defense spending.
But he added, “They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on.”
Trump urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold elections despite Russia’s invasion. “I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election,” Trump said. “It gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
Elections in Ukraine were due in March 2024 but have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after Russia seized roughly 20% of its territory.
In response to Trump’s comments, Zelensky said on Tuesday that he was “ready for the elections” if the US ensured security, revealing that he will send Ukraine’s updated version of the US plan on Wednesday.
Fresh elections were included in the draft US plan to end the war, with Trump reiterating claims about Zelensky having not read the US plan. “It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying,” Trump said.
Migration and Leadership
Trump also had sharp words for European nations on migration, saying that migration was destroying countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and Sweden. He also launched a new attack on “horrible, vicious, disgusting” Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor. Khan told Politico that Trump was “obsessed” with him and said US citizens were “flocking” to live in London.
Top US negotiators met Putin in Moscow last week, then held days of negotiations with Ukrainian officials, but there has been no apparent breakthrough.
