Aghast critics slam Trump document as laying out 'explicit' plan for extremism

The Trump administrationreleased its official National Security Strategy this week — and many critics noted that it was loaded with rhetoric frequently used by white nationalists.

Some of the most inflammatory language in the document is aimed at US-allied European countries that supposedly face “the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure” within the next 20 years.

In particular, the document accuses the European Union of enacting policies “that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.”

The document goes on to claim that “should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less,” while emphasizing that US policy is to help “Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation.”

Jon Henley, Europe correspondent for the Guardian, noted in a Friday report that the document “appears to espouse the racist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, saying several countries risk becoming ‘majority non-European.’” Henley added that the document “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.”

Scott Horton, legal affairs and national security contributor to Harper’s and an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, wrote on Bluesky that the document “reads like something written by Vladimir Putin,” given its depiction of Europe as being “degenerate and... racially adulterated through the in-migration of dark-skinned people.”

Progressive activist Max Berger argued that the document “contains some pretty explicit white nationalism.” He pointed to the document’s support for dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as a way to restore “a culture of competence.”

Berger also flagged a section in the document that named “ending mass migration” as the top US national security priority, which he described as “a pretty explicit defense of using the state as a means of enforcing white supremacy.”

Edmund Luce, a columnist for the Financial Times, also took note of the administration’s emphasis on “competence and merit” in the document. This is ironic, Luce continued, because “this administration personifies the opposites” of those traits.

Journalist Michael Weiss argued in a post on X that the document shows that it is now official US policy to promote and assist far-right parties in Europe.

“[US Vice President] JD Vance’s intervention in Germany’s election, on behalf of [far-right party Alternative für Deutschland], was not a one-off,” he wrote. “It is now ingrained in the U.S. National Security Strategy... Europe is be treated as enemy terrain to be destabilized by America’s enabling of far-right parties.”