President Donald Trump’s government is working specifically to divide the European Union.Image: keystone
A non-public addition to the US security strategy shows: President Donald Trump’s government is working specifically to divide the European Union. The first European secret services are now classifying the USA as a threat.
12/12/2025, 06:2012/12/2025, 06:20
Remo Hess, Brussels / ch media
On Wednesday, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin received the green light from the USA. As promised, the Trump administration will now reduce tariffs against Switzerland to 15 percent.
It was no coincidence that the announcement came on the day of Parmelin’s election as Federal President. His department has discussed this with Washington.
The US government is showing two things: Firstly, it is obviously aware of what the tariff reduction means for the personal success of the SVP Federal Council. At the same time, the USA now appears to be doing in Switzerland what it has recently wanted to do everywhere in Europe: it is strengthening those forces that are ideologically close to Trump. And in this country that would be the SVP. Nowhere are there so many Trump admirers. Nowhere is EU skepticism greater than in the Swiss People’s Party.
Austria, Hungary, Poland and Italy are to be processed
Targeted promotion of these forces in Europe is part of the new US security strategy. It bears the signature of Vice President JD Vance and Trump advisor Stephen Miller. Almost a week after its publication, the paper continues to cause unrest. The USA predicts “civilizational extinction” for the old continent. They see the EU as one of Europe’s main problems, which would undermine the sovereignty of nation states.
In an addition to the strategy that only became public on Tuesday, Trump’s strategists are now going even further. They specifically name four countries in Europe that the USA is focusing on and which they want to “separate” from the EU. These would be: Austria, Hungary, Poland and Italy, quotes that US news portal “Defense One” from the additional document.
The USA obviously sees potential for leaving the EU in the four countries mentioned. It is important to “work with parties, movements and intellectual and cultural people who strive for independence and the preservation of the traditional European way of life,” it says.
In Austria this refers to the right-wing populist and anti-EU Freedom Party (FPÖ). This is also explosive because the FPÖ is currently not a governing party, but an opposition party. If the USA implements its strategy, it would work on a change of government in the Alpine republic. The same applies to Poland, where the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk brought the country back to a pro-European course two years ago.
Of course, this “regime change” approach also contradicts the USA’s intended return to the so-called “Monroe Doctrine”, which includes, among other things, non-intervention in Europe.
Just a very rough understanding of European politics
What is generally striking is how bluntly the USA assesses the political situation in Europe. In Hungary, for example, where the Trump government is fully committed to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, his government is about to be replaced in the elections next April. The opposition Tisza party is ten percentage points ahead in the polls.
Orban may also constantly rail against Brussels. But 82 percent of his compatriots think so Hungary benefits from EU membership. In Poland it is even 85 percent. Separating these countries from the EU will be difficult.
It is unclear what exactly the Americans mean by Italy. It is well known that Trump is friendly to right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. At the same time, Meloni has largely shed her EU skepticism since taking office. This is probably also due to the almost 200 billion euros in economic aid that Italy receives from the EU’s Corona reconstruction fund.
But perhaps the US government also wants to promote Meloni’s competitor Matteo Salvini. He is not only a fan of Trump, but has also been an admirer of Russia’s ruler Vladimir Putin for years.
Denmark’s secret service sees the USA as a security risk
Be that as it may, Europe is preparing for the Trump administration’s new foreign policy goals. This also applies to the intelligence services, where the USA is increasingly perceived as a security risk. “The USA is now using its economic and technological strength as an instrument of power, including against allies,” it says Annual report published on Wednesday the Danish foreign intelligence service.
And on Tuesday, Sinan Selen, the head of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said he saw no reason to believe that the USA had broken with Europe. Nevertheless, the security strategy must now be clarified as quickly as possible: “What exactly does that actually mean?”
It is questionable whether this is something that US President Donald Trump could answer himself. His former security advisor John Bolton does not believe that he ever read the document he signed. Even in his last mandate, he was not interested in national security strategy. Such documents “do not matter to him anyway,” said Bolton at an event in Washington. (aargauerzeitung.ch)