Trump slams ‘decaying’ and ‘weak’ Europe

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump blasted Europe as “decaying” and “weak” on immigration and Ukraine in an interview published on Dec 9, deepening a rift between the United States and some of its oldest allies.

Speaking to Politico, Mr Trump also called on war-battered Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold elections despite Russia’s invasion and said that Moscow had the “upper hand”.

Mr Trump’s comments doubled down on extraordinary criticism of top US partners in his administration’s new national security strategy last week, which recycled far-right tropes about civilizational “erasure” in Europe.

“Most European nations, they’re decaying,” Mr Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted Monday.

The 79-year-old billionaire, whose political rise to power was built on inflammatory language about migrants, said that Europe’s policies on migrants were a “disaster”.

“They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak,” Mr Trump said, adding that there were “some real stupid ones” among Europe’s leaders.

Mr Trump also criticised European nations over Ukraine, amid growing differences over a US plan to end the war that many in Europe fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022.

“NATO calls me daddy,” MrTrump said, referring to comments by the military alliance’s leader Mark Rutte at a summit in June when leaders backed Mr Trump’s call to raise defence spending.

But he added: “They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on.”

European leaders have been trying to woo Trump since his return to office in January, especially on maintaining US support for Ukraine against Russia.

Mr Trump’s interview will intensify the alarm in European capitals sparked by the US security strategy last week, with its calls for “cultivating resistance” in Europe on migration and warnings of so-called “civilisational erasure”.

Experts have said parts of it echo elements of the “great replacement theory” promoted by the far-right – and Mr Trump’s former ally Elon Musk – which alleges a conspiracy to replace white populations.

‘Not a democracy anymore’

In contrast to the savaging of close US allies, Russia and China got off relatively lightly in the US strategy. The Kremlin said the US document aligned with its own worldview.

A French minister, Alice Rufo, said on Dec 9 that the US security strategy was an “extremely brutal clarification of the ideological stance of the United States”.

In his Politico interview, Mr Trump said countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden were being “destroyed” by migration.

He also launched a new attack on “horrible, vicious, disgusting” Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor. Mr Khan told Politico that Mr Trump was “obsessed” with him and said US citizens were “flocking” to live in London.

Mr Trump also had sharp words for Ukraine and for Mr Zelensky, in his latest seesaw in relations with the leader whom he called a “dictator without elections” in January and then berated in the Oval Office in February.

“I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election.” Mr Trump said. “It gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

Elections in Ukraine were due in March 2024 but have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. About 20 per cent of the country is under occupation.

Fresh elections were included in the draft US plan to end the war.

He also reiterated claims about Mr Zelensky having not read the US plan. “It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying,” Mr Trump said.

Top US negotiators met Mr Putin in Moscow last week, then held days of negotiations with Ukrainian officials, but there has been no apparent breakthrough.

Mr Zelensky said on Dec 9 in response to Mr Trump’s comments that he was “ready for the elections” if security was ensured.

He said he hoped to send Ukraine’s updated version of the US plan on Dec 10. AFP