Trump Is Right in the Wrong Way

After years of public lashings directed at Europe, Donald Trump’s new US National Security Strategy (NSS) does not break new ground. Still, it is one thing to hear his stage rhetoric and another to see his worldview codified in official doctrine. Its core claim is blunt: Europe will be “unrecognisable in 20 years” due to “civilisational erasure” unless the United States, “sentimentally attached” to the continent, steps in to rescue it.

The issue is not only what is written, but also how the document frames Europe’s weaknesses. Political leaders largely avoid this conversation. Some deny the problem, and others concede it privately while publicly debating symptoms and leaving root causes unaddressed: decades of underinvestment in people, persistent political incentives to ignore excluded communities and a reluctance to confront how demographic and economic decline interact.

A clearer perspective comes from those who live with these failures. Across Europe, tens of millions in the working class survive amid shuttered factories, underfunded schools, unaffordable housing and broken public services. The Roma bring this into sharper focus. As Europe’s largest and most dispossessed minority, their experience exposes the continent’s choice to treat entire populations as collateral damage. When Trump presses on Europe’s wounds, these communities confirm where it hurts. 

What the NSS Gets Right About Europe

The NSS argues that Europe’s “lack of self-confidence” is most visible in its relationship with Russia. There is truth in this. Europe’s paralysis towards Moscow contrasts with its aggression towards weaker groups at home, echoing Erich Fromm’s description of the sadomasochistic character: submission to the strong, hostility towards the vulnerable.

Examples are plentiful. Slovenia rushed through the Sutar Law to treat Roma neighbourhoods as security threats after a bar fight spiralled into hysteria. In Greece, police shoot Roma teenagers after imagining threats. Portugal’s Chega party obsesses over Roma. In Italy, Matteo Salvini built an entire political brand on anti-Roma paranoia, much as he did with immigrants, refugees or other minorities. Leaders over-securitise the Roma while overcompensating for their caution towards Russia. 

If Roma employment in Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria—where their unemployment rates are currently 25 percentage points below those of the majority population—matched national averages, the combined GDP gain would exceed €10 billion. In a continent losing two million workers a year, letting this potential go unused is self-sabotage.

The NSS further warns of “subversion of democratic processes”. Again, Europe falls short. Nearly 12 million Roma hold only 13 seats across 41 national parliaments, while proportionally, they should hold over 400. The European Parliament includes seats for Malta and Luxembourg, with populations of 570,000 and 680,000, respectively, yet none for Roma. Documentation barriers, restrictive registration and weak protection from coercion limit meaningful participation. 

These failures make Trump’s diagnosis land: Europe treats tens of millions as surplus or politically irrelevant. A continent that wastes its population cannot be competitive, and one that suppresses parts of its electorate cannot claim to be representative. Political exclusion reduces voter turnout and registration rates, leading to systematically under-representative institutions, while economic exclusion makes communities easier targets for vote-buying, coercion and political capture.

Trump’s Cure Is Delusional Poison

Trump’s supposed cure, however, is far more dangerous than his diagnosis. His strategy assumes far-right pseudo-sovereigntists, opposed to immigration and minorities alike, can reverse Europe’s decline. The evidence says otherwise. Brexit has left the UK’s GDP 6–8 per cent lower than it would have been. Hungary faces stagnant growth, a high deficit and frozen EU funds. Exclusion weakens economies and makes democracies vulnerable.

Trump champions sovereignty for his allies, but not for Europe as a whole. His approach empowers the ideological heirs of forces the United States once helped Europe defeat. In practice, his “restoration” would deepen Europe’s dependence on Washington, then Moscow.

The strategy’s call for regaining “civilisational self-confidence” rests on demographic alarmism. Migration challenges are real, but panic intensifies the sadomasochistic pattern Fromm described. It accelerates erosion, not renewal.

The Case for Inclusive Realism

In truth, Europe cannot survive global realpolitik with liberal nostalgia, summits or rhetorical commitments, nor with far-right theatrics that corrode institutions.

What Europe needs is inclusive realism: the recognition that investing in all its people is not charity but a strategic necessity. China’s rise illustrates this. Decades of investment in health, education and employment expanded human capital, increased productivity and reshaped global power balances.