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On the exact day Donald Trump was presented with a custom-made "peace prize" from his recent friend, FIFA president "Gianni" Infantino, his government released an similarly flamboyant national security strategy. This fairly brief paper drips with pure Trump and Trumpism. It opens with the typically modest assertion that the president has brought back "our nation – and the world – back from the brink of disaster and disaster."

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

A Blueprint of Interference and Cultural Anxiety

The document espouses an aggressive form of foreign-policy interference where the US explicitly sets the goal of "promoting European greatness." Its language seems taken straight from speeches by the Hungarian Prime Minister during the much-discussed refugee crisis of 2015-16: "Our desire is for Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-assurance." More ominously, the document claims that Europe's "economic decline is overshadowed by the real and starker prospect of civilizational erasure."

The whole section on Europe is imbued with generations of European far-right ideology and propaganda. The EU and its migration policies are blamed for "changing the continent and creating conflict, suppression of free speech and suppression of dissent, 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 powerful enough to remain reliable allies." Indeed, the Trump administration believes that "within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European."

"U.S. foreign policy should continue to champion genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and proud commemorations of European nations’ individual character and past."

Core Ideas of the Right-Wing

These arguments carry powerful overtones of two theories seen as core for contemporary right-wing circles. The first is Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the West," whose argument on the cyclical decline of civilizations was used by the German far right to attack the "perversion" and "weakness" of the democratic Weimar Republic. The second is "Le Grand Remplacement," published in 2011 by French novelist Renaud Camus, who translated long-existing "native" fears into a more overt conspiracy theory, accusing European elites of using immigration to substitute rebellious "indigenous" populations and import a more docile and dependent electorate.

It is the nationalist fever dream encapsulated in both ideas that grants the Trump administration the right, if not the duty, to intervene in European affairs, the document suggests. And it is evident where it identifies its allies: "The United States urges its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the increasing influence of patriotic European parties in fact gives cause for significant hope."

The Objective: "Make Europe Great Again"

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. Consequently, its "overarching strategy for Europe" prioritises "fostering resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations" – understood as the far right – and "building up the healthy nations of central, eastern, and southern Europe" – in particular "aligned countries that want to restore their past glory" – a clear reference to Hungary and Italy.

While the document remains unclear on implementation, it is apparent that a priority is to push Europe to adopt a sweeping 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 phrases it, to "restore strategic stability with Russia." Although the country is not explicitly 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 Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Articulated by President James Monroe, this cautioned European powers not to interfere in the "western hemisphere," which he proclaimed to be the US’s sphere of interest. The Trump administration’s policy document vows to "assert and enforce a Trump corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, which involves the US "recruiting" countries worldwide that wish to help safeguard US national interests.

None of this is necessarily new – recall JD Vance’s speech at the 2025 Munich Security Conference, where the vice-president launched an ideological attack on Europe’s democratic model. But perhaps now that it is published in an formal document, European leaders will finally understand that the situation is grave. And if the document is too long or imprecise 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 just an unwilling ally; it is a deliberate adversary. Now is time to act accordingly.