The American government’s new security strategy is frightening with massive anti-European statements. What is behind these denigrations of the EU?
Dec 8, 2025, 5:58 amDec 8, 2025, 6:11 am
Renzo Ruf, Washington / ch media
America’s right rejoices. Donald Trump’s new security strategy, in which the White House paints the “real and increasingly clear danger of civilization’s disappearance” in Europe, hits the nerve of many of the president’s supporters.
If JD Vance or Marco Rubio become Trump’s successor, the anti-EU stance could intensify.Image: keystone
The tasteless highlight at the weekend was provided by entrepreneur Elon Musk: On his platform One commentator wrote: “The Fourth Reich.” And Musk replied: “Pretty much.” In another statement he therefore also called for the abolition of the European Union.
Now Musk is biased in this matter. The EU Commission imposed a fine of 120 million euros on its internet service on Friday because X against the European Digital Services Act have violated. Even before this decision, the entrepreneur had railed against the European central state and repeatedly warned of a European censorship regime. The native South African also got involved in the domestic politics of European countries, for example by making an election call in favor of the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Controversial gesture: Elon Musk shows a lot of sympathy for right-wing extremist positions.Image: www.imago-images.de
And although Musk had meanwhile broken with President Trump and even threatened to found a new right-wing party, high-ranking representatives of the American cabinet immediately expressed their solidarity with him. Foreign Minister Marco Rubio said that the EU penalty not only represents “an attack” on all American technology platforms, but is also an attack by “foreign governments on the American people” – a kind of hidden declaration of war by Brussels.
Trump says the EU is “cheating” the USA
Christopher Landau, number two in the Foreign Ministry, struck a similar tone. He indicated that membership in the NATO defense alliance could soon be incompatible with participation in the European Union. (23 states are simultaneously members of the EU and NATO.)
Landau therefore called on the US allies on the old continent to make a decision:
“Either the great nations of Europe are our partners in protecting the Western civilization we inherited from them, or they are not.”
Such extreme positions are now documented in the position paper “National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” which was published by the White House on Friday night without much advance notice. In the chapter on Europe you can read that the bureaucracy in Brussels and the immigration policies of the European states have weakened the entire continent.
Not only is the right to freedom of expression restricted; The political opposition is also allegedly suppressed. “If current trends continue, the continent will no longer be recognizable in 20 years or less,” says the strategy paper.
These are astonishing statements from the government of a country that broke away from a kingdom in Europe almost 250 years ago. But they fit with the views that the American president and his allies have long held. What remains in memory is the incendiary speech against the EU that Vice President JD Vance gave at the Munich Security Conference at the beginning of the year. And Trump’s statement that the European Union was only created “to screw over the United States.”
What consequences does the strategy paper have?
Europeans will take comfort in the fact that Trump administration strategy documents are usually not worth the paper they are printed on. The president is not influenced by thought leaders, but rather by his gut feeling. Trump also sees foreign policy primarily as an instrument to enrich himself.
If he likes top European politicians, then they can convince him with arguments – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s visit to Washington in June was very harmonious, even though Trump repeatedly taunts his ancestors’ homeland.
But behind the scenes there is already a power struggle over the legacy of Trump, who will no longer be able to officially run in the next presidential election. And the statements from Vance and Rubio, who not only serves as secretary of state but also as security adviser, suggest that potential Trump successors will take an extreme anti-EU course. The next generation of “Make America Great Again” figureheads will take the new strategy paper seriously. (aargauerzeitung.ch)