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On the exact day Donald Trump received a custom-made "peace prize" from his newest friend, FIFA president "Gianni" Infantino, his administration released an similarly ostentatious national security strategy. This fairly short paper is saturated with pure Trump and Trumpism. It opens with the typically modest claim that the president has brought back "our nation – and the world – back from the brink of catastrophe and ruin."

Even though the document mostly formalizes the current policies and rhetoric of Trump and his cabinet, it must be taken as a grave caution for the world, and for Europe specifically.

A Strategy of Interference and Civilizational Anxiety

The document advocates for an aggressive form of foreign-policy interference where the US clearly sets the goal of "fostering European strength." Its rhetoric seems lifted directly from speeches by Viktor Orbán during the much-discussed refugee crisis of 2015-16: "We want Europe to stay European, to reclaim its civilizational self-assurance." Even more worryingly, the document states that Europe's "economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of cultural extinction."

The whole section on Europe is imbued with decades of European far-right ideology and propaganda. The EU and its migration policies are blamed for "changing the continent and causing strife, censorship of free expression and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and erosion of national identities and self-confidence." According to the document, if "current trajectories continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economic power and militaries powerful enough to be reliable allies." Indeed, the Trump administration asserts that "in a matter of years at the latest, some NATO members will become majority non-European."

"U.S. foreign policy should continue to stand up for authentic democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ unique heritage and past."

Foundational Ideas of the Right-Wing

These arguments carry powerful echoes of two theories seen as core for contemporary far-right circles. The first is Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the West," whose argument on the inevitable fall of civilizations was employed by the German far right to criticise the "perversion" and "weakness" of the democratic Weimar Republic. The second is "The Great Replacement," published in 2011 by French novelist Renaud Camus, who transformed long-existing "indigenous" fears into a more overt conspiratorial narrative, alleging European elites of using immigration to substitute restive "indigenous" populations and import a more docile and dependent electorate.

It is the nationalist fever dream contained in both ideas that grants the Trump administration the authority, if not the duty, to intervene in European affairs, the document suggests. And it is evident where it sees its allies: "America encourages its ideological partners in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing clout of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism."

The Objective: "Make Europe Great Again"

In other words, the US believes that it is essential to its national security to "Restore European strength," and that the European far right is the only political force that can achieve this. Therefore, its "overarching strategy for Europe" focuses on "cultivating resistance to Europe’s present path within European nations" – understood as the far right – and "building up the healthy nations of central, eastern, and southern Europe" – specifically "nations in agreement that want to restore their past glory" – such as Hungary and Italy.

While the document stays vague on methods, it is obvious that a key aim is to push Europe to adopt a radical policy on freedom of speech, closer to the US model – especially regarding far-right speech – and not limited to social media. Another is to normalize relations with Russia; or, as the document calls it, to "reestablish strategic stability with Russia." Although the country is not directly called a future ally, the Trump administration evidently does not regard Russia as an adversary either.

A Historical Precedent: The Monroe Doctrine

In a wider context, the national security strategy takes its inspiration less from the glorified US of the 1950s and more from the 1823 policy of 1823. Articulated by President James Monroe, this cautioned European powers not to meddle in the "Americas," which he declared to be the US’s sphere of interest. The Trump administration’s policy document vows to "implement a Trump addition" to the Monroe Doctrine, which entails the US "recruiting" countries worldwide that wish to help protect US national interests.

None of this is necessarily new – consider JD Vance’s address at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, where the vice-president launched an assault on Europe’s democratic model. But perhaps now that it is published in an formal document, European leaders will at last realize that the situation is grave. And if the document is too lengthy or vague for them, it can be condensed in plain and succinct terms: the current US government holds that its national security is best served by the destruction of liberal democracy in Europe. In other words, the US is not only an unwilling ally; it is a deliberate adversary. Now is time to respond accordingly.