JD Vance already showed in Munich that Maga doesn’t like Europe. Image: watson/keystone
analysis
Donald Trump’s national security strategy could prove to be a boomerang.
December 8, 2025, 5:44 p.mDecember 8, 2025, 5:44 p.m
The woke wave originated in the USA before spreading to Europe. In percentage terms, there are about the same number of immigrants in the larger countries of Western Europe as in America. Nevertheless, the 33-page paper published on Friday entitled “US National Security Strategy” (NSS) warns in harsh tones that the old continent is doomed because of its decadence.
In view of these obvious contradictions in this paper, Janan Ganesh in the “Financial Times” also asks: “What bothers these people about Europe? What has the continent done to the West that the United States has not done? Why can’t the Americans just leave Europe alone?”
JD Vance during his speech in Munich in May.Image: keystone
The attack on Europe from Washington is not new. Maga doesn’t like the old continent. JD Vance made this abundantly clear in his legendary speech at the Munich Security Conference at the beginning of this year. Elon Musk also regularly announces his contempt for the EU, as well as his admiration for right-wing radical populists.
The NSS paper also contains clear traces of the “great exchange” thesis so popular in MAGA and right-wing populist circles, which states that Europe will soon be populated by a Muslim majority.
“The NSS is a plan for an illiberal world order,” explains Tom Wright, an expert on geopolitics at the Brookings Institution think tank, in the Financial Times. “It throws the core idea of the first Trump era and that of Biden – that the USA is in a great power competition with China and Russia – overboard. China is viewed solely through economic lenses, the Russian threat to Europe is not mentioned at all.”
It’s no wonder that the paper is highly praised, especially in Moscow. From Brussels, however, the tone is different: “It is a frontal attack on the European Union,” explains Brando Benifei, an Italian member of the EU Parliament, for example, adding that it is “totally unacceptable” and “full of shocking formulations.”
There were times when the NSS were written by profound thinkers such as Henry Kissinger or Zbigniew Brzezinski. You could share their opinion or not. You definitely had to take note of them. That is not the case with the current paper, writes Eliot Cohen in the “Atlantic”.
You had to take him seriously: Henry Kissinger.Image: keystone
“Most of the document consists of bombast, flattery, inconsistencies and grotesque contradictions,” said Cohen. «(…) It is like the babbling of a sleepwalker, vacillating between fantastic dreams and cold sweat-inducing nightmares. It is a window into a disturbing encounter with reality.”
Janan Ganesh also comes to an unflattering conclusion: “Perhaps they (MAGA representatives) have lost too many battles on the home front. Therefore, it is easier for them to attack foreign countries. The attack on Europe is a hidden self-reproach.”
What’s more, it could one day prove to be a boomerang. Ivan Krastev explains why this is the case in his essay in “Foreign Affairs”. He is one of today’s leading political scientists and chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia.
Krastev notes that Trump – unlike his predecessors – does not see himself as a guardian of democracy and makes no secret of his sympathies for right-wing radical parties such as the AfD in Germany or the Reform Party in the United Kingdom. These parties, in turn, are avowed Trump fans. Conversely, the USA’s traditional friends, the centrist parties, are distancing themselves.
“The Trump revolution has divided Europe,” says Krastev. “Unlike previous moments of friction, such as the American invasion of Iraq, there is no longer a separation between pro- and anti-America countries. This time it falls between the pro- and anti-Trump camps.”
Important thought leader: Ivan Krastev. Image: IWM/Klaus Ranger
However, sympathy for Trump and MAGA is on shaky ground among right-wing populists. Krastev adds the example of Viktor Orbán. The Hungarian Prime Minister is a hero of the right. But at the same time he is also a declared China fan. “In his (Viktor Orbán’s) view of things, Asia has the demographic momentum, a technological advantage and enormous capital power,” said Krastev. “It is also rapidly expanding its military capabilities to catch up with the United States and its Western allies. That’s why Orbán is convinced that the future world order will revolve around Asia.”
Orbán not only raves about Asia, he also already has economic ties with Asians. China invests more in Hungary than in France, Germany and the United Kingdom combined. The German AfD, in turn, is heavily oriented towards Moscow.
Krastev therefore concludes: “By strengthening its ties to Europe’s right-wing parties, Washington could paradoxically weaken its influence on Europe as a whole.”
In many ways, Trump is similar to Gorbachev, Krastev notes. “Gorby-mania toppled the communist regimes in Eastern Europe – and thereby helped Moscow lose its influence.”