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On the exact day Donald Trump received a custom-made "peace prize" from his recent ally, FIFA president "Johnny" Infantino, his government published an similarly flamboyant national security strategy. This fairly brief report is saturated with pure Trump and Trumpism. It opens with the characteristically modest claim that the president has brought back "our nation – and the world – back from the brink of catastrophe and disaster."

Even though the strategy mostly codifies the ongoing actions and statements of Trump and his cabinet, it must be heeded as a serious warning for the international community, and for the European continent in particular.

A Blueprint of Intervention and Cultural Anxiety

The document espouses an aggressive form of foreign-policy meddling where the US clearly sets the goal of "fostering European strength." Its language could have been lifted directly from speeches by Viktor Orbán during the so-called migration emergency of 2015-16: "We want Europe to stay European, to regain its cultural self-confidence." More ominously, the document claims that Europe's "financial downturn is overshadowed by the genuine and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure."

The entire section on Europe is imbued with decades of European right-wing ideology and rhetoric. The EU and its migration policies are held responsible for "transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and stifling of political opposition, plummeting birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence." According to the document, if "current trajectories continue, the continent will be unrecognisable in 20 years or less. As such, it is not at all clear whether some European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies." Indeed, the Trump administration believes that "within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become predominantly non-European."

"U.S. foreign policy should continue to champion genuine democracy, free speech, and proud commemorations of European nations’ individual character and history."

Core Ideas of the Right-Wing

These points carry strong echoes of two concepts seen as core for contemporary far-right circles. The first is Oswald Spengler's "Der Untergang des Abendlandes," whose argument on the cyclical decline of civilizations was employed by the German far right to attack the "perversion" and "enfeeblement" of the democratic Weimar Republic. The second is "Le Grand Remplacement," published in 2011 by French novelist Renaud Camus, who transformed long-existing "native" fears into a more explicit conspiracy theory, alleging European elites of using immigration to replace rebellious "indigenous" populations and bring in a more docile and reliant electorate.

It is the nationalist fever dream encapsulated in both ideas that grants the Trump administration the right, if not the obligation, to interfere in European affairs, the document implies. And it is clear where it identifies its allies: "The United States urges its ideological partners in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the increasing clout of nationalist European parties in fact gives cause for great optimism."

The Objective: "Restore European Greatness"

In other words, the US believes that it is essential to its national security to "Make Europe great again," and that the European far right is the only political force that can achieve this. Therefore, its "broad policy for Europe" prioritises "cultivating opposition to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations" – meaning the far right – and "strengthening the robust nations of central, eastern, and southern Europe" – in particular "aligned countries that want to restore their past glory" – such as Hungary and Italy.

While the document remains vague on methods, it is apparent that a priority is to pressure Europe to adopt a sweeping policy on freedom of speech, closer to the US model – especially regarding right-wing speech – and not limited to social media. Another is to normalize relations with Russia; or, as the document phrases it, to "reestablish strategic stability with Russia." Although the country is not directly called a future ally, the Trump administration clearly does not treat Russia as an enemy either.

An Ideological Blueprint: The Monroe Doctrine

In a wider context, the national security strategy takes its inspiration less from the idealized US of the 1950s and more from the 1823 policy of 1823. Articulated by President James Monroe, this warned European powers not to interfere in the "western hemisphere," which he proclaimed to be the US’s zone of influence. The Trump administration’s policy document promises to "assert and enforce a Trump addition" to the Monroe Doctrine, which entails the US "recruiting" countries worldwide that wish to help safeguard US national interests.

None of this is necessarily new – consider JD Vance’s address at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, where the vice-president unleashed an assault on Europe’s democratic model. But perhaps now that it is laid out in an official document, European leaders will finally realize that the situation is grave. And if the document is too long or imprecise for them, it can be condensed in clear and concise terms: the current US government believes that its national security is most enhanced by the destruction of liberal democracy in Europe. To put it bluntly, the US is not only an unwilling ally; it is a deliberate adversary. Now is time to respond appropriately.