‘Cultivate resistance’: policy paper lays bare Trump support for Europe’s far right | US foreign policy

Donald Trump’s administration has said Europe faces “civilisational erasure” within the next two decades as a result of migration and EU integration, arguing in a policy document that the US must “cultivate resistance” within the continent to “Europe’s current trajectory”.

Billed as “a roadmap to ensure America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history and the home of freedom on earth”, the US National Security Strategy makes explicit Washington’s support for Europe’s far-right parties.

The document, with a signed introduction by Trump, says Europe is in economic decline but its “real problems are even deeper”, including “activities of the EU that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition … and loss of national identities”.

The 33-page exposition of Trump’s “America First” worldview appears to espouse the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk becoming “majority non-European” and Europe faces “the real and stark prospect of civilisational erasure”. It adds: “Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less.”

US policies must therefore include “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” as well as enabling Europe to “take primary responsibility for its own defence” and “opening European markets to US goods and services”.

Responding to the strategy document on Friday, Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul said the US remained a vital ally on security but “questions of freedom of expression or the organisation of our free societies” did not fall into that category.

“We see ourselves as being able to discuss and debate these matters entirely on our own in the future, and do not need outside advice,” he said.

The policy document, released by the White House late on Thursday, underscores the Trump administration’s clear alignment with Europe’s far-right nationalist parties, whose policies centre on attacking supposed EU overreach and excessive non-EU migration.

In language that will appear extraordinary to close allies, it says the US should “stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history”, adding that Washington “encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit”.

With far-right parties either in government, supporting rightwing coalitions or leading in the polls in several EU member states, the document says the “growing influence of patriotic European parties … gives cause for great optimism”.

The Trump administration has repeatedly sought to foster closer ties with Europe’s nationalist parties, including Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). In September a senior AfD party figure visited the White House for meetings with senior officials.

On immigration, the strategy document appears to endorse the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which claims ethnic white European populations are deliberately being replaced by non-white peoples. It says it is “more than plausible” that “within a few decades at the latest” some European Nato members “will become majority non-European”.

It claims Europe must “remain European, regain its civilisational self-confidence and abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation,” arguing that the continent’s lack of assurance is evident in its relationship with Russia.

As Trump seeks an end to the Ukraine war that would most likely favour Russia gaining territory, the document accuses Europeans of showing weakness. Despite a “significant hard power advantage”, it says, many on the continent “regard Russia as an existential threat”.

It argues it is a “core interest of the US to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine” but that Washington “finds itself at odds with European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war perched in unstable minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition”.

It claims that a “large European majority” wants peace in Ukraine but that this “is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes”.

The document’s publication came hours after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, reportedly warned his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that the US could “betray Ukraine on territory, without clarity on security guarantees”.

The thrust of the US text echoes JD Vance’s brutal ideological attack on Europe at this year’s Munich security conference, in which the US vice-president accused EU leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running from voters’ true beliefs.

The document concedes that Europe remains “strategically and culturally vital” to the US, with transatlantic trade one of the pillars of the global economy and US prosperity. It also says the US “needs a strong Europe to help us successfully compete and to work in concert with us to prevent any adversary from dominating Europe”.

It adds that Washington wants to “work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness”.