The Trump administration’s latest National Security Strategy (NSS) has sharply criticized Europe’s current political direction, warning that the continent risks “civilizational erasure” unless it changes course and restores core liberties and economic strength.
The document, signed by President Donald Trump and posted on Friday (December 5) on the White House website, lays out concerns about Europe’s internal policies and the implications for the future of NATO.
Europe ‘must change course,’ says NSS
The strategy document issues an unprecedented criticism of European environmental rules, migration frameworks, and free-speech restrictions.
“We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation,” the report states.
The document asserts that current trends could make Europe “unrecognizable” within two decades and weaken the continent’s reliability as a US ally.
Critique of EU policies and Democratic restrictions
The NSS accuses the European Union and other transnational bodies of undermining foundational democratic principles.
“Continental Europe has been losing share of global GDP… but this economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure,” it warns.
According to the strategy file, Europe’s challenges include:
-Anti-democratic censorship and speech restrictions
-Migration policies ‘transforming the continent’
-Drop in birthrates
-Loss of national identity and self-confidence
“We will oppose elite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe, the Anglosphere, and the rest of the democratic world,” the document says.
Attack on ‘climate’ and ‘net zero’ policies
The Trump administration directly targets Europe’s climate agenda, calling it harmful and strategically dangerous.
“We reject the disastrous ‘climate change’ and ‘Net Zero’ ideologies that have so greatly harmed Europe, threaten the United States, and subsidize our adversaries,” the NSS states.
Concerns over NATO’s future
The report warns that demographic and political shifts could weaken NATO from within.
“It is more than plausible that, within a few decades, some NATO members will become ‘majority non-European,’” it says. “It is an open question whether they would see the alliance in the same way.”
The document argues that Europe’s internal crises risk undermining its military readiness:
“It is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.”
It also calls for halting the notion of NATO as a “perpetually expanding alliance,” a reference to stalled membership bids from Ukraine and Georgia.
Call for ‘resistance’ within Europe
The Trump administration outlines a controversial strategy for influencing European politics directly.
The NSS proposes “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” and partnering with “aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.”
“Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory,” the document says.
Ukraine war: Push for rapid settlement
The strategy report calls for a rapid negotiated outcome to the war in Ukraine and criticizes European leaders for what it describes as unrealistic expectations.
The NSS says the US seeks to “re-establish strategic stability with Russia” and that European governments have “trampled on basic principles of democracy” to silence dissenting views on the war.
“A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy,” it says.
US ‘sentimentally attached’ to Europe
Despite the sharp criticism, the NSS emphasizes the United States’ deep cultural ties to Europe.
The US remains “sentimentally attached” to European countries, including Britain and Ireland, the document says, adding that “the character of these countries is also strategically important.”