You might think the Trump administration had enough on its plate. A failing war against Iran, punitive prices at the petrol pump and a stock market in bubble territory. Yet, the administration still found time to weigh in on the tragic killing of Henry Nowak in the UK.
The Department of State saw the murder as a symptom of “civilisational decline”. JD Vance blamed “the last few generations of European elites” for permitting “the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West”, while Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s Secretary of War, struck a similar note when he contrasted the earlier resistance to fascism with the current failure to resist “different dangerous ideologies” brought by illegal immigrants.
Commentators in Europe seem at a loss to explain why the Trump administration fixates on European migration levels. “Mind your own business” is a common response on British social media.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration has decided that Europe’s “civilisational decline” is very much America’s business. A US government that jealously defends its own national sovereignty feels no compunction about interfering in the sovereignty of others. And we can expect many more finger-pointing interventions from Vance and Trump’s Maga crowd going forward.
These interventions will continue because they provide weapons in America’s own culture war – a fiercely waged battle that pits Trump’s base against the liberal elites believed to run America’s universities, media and white-collar professions.
“Europe” has become shorthand for everything Maga despises at home: open borders, diversity and, according to some, managed decline. “Want a 10-year preview of what a globalised America would look like?” Hegseth asked. “Take a look at Europe.”
While the Trump administration would reject the charge of racism, there is unmistakably a racial component to its attacks on Europe. Vance and others seek to defend a new civilisational America that privileges those who share a common white and Judeo-Christian heritage.
Supporters of British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, gather during a ‘Free speech’ march in London (Photo: Carlos Jasso/AFP)The only refugees admitted in significant numbers to the United States this year are white Boer farmers from South Africa. Meanwhile, Hegseth has been busy removing women and minorities from promotion lists in the US military.
Trump administration officials are not alone in their attacks on Europe. Maga-aligned podcasters frequently join the fray. Tucker Carlson ran an entire show devoted to the Nowak case. Carlson likes to use London as a cautionary tale of the chaos, crime and decline that awaits America if it allows woke liberals to run its cities.
British commentators push back against these attacks with statistics that show Britain is relatively safe compared to most US cities. Such responses make no headway. Maga thinks in memes, not statistics.
If the Trump administration and Maga’s contempt for Europe was meant only for domestic consumption, Europeans might ignore it. But the denigration of Europe serves a larger goal.
Since 1945, the transatlantic order rested on a foundational myth: the US as a benevolent protector nurturing a family of democratic equals. Maga has sought to demolish that myth. In its place stands a predatory hegemon under Trump, one that threatens to quit Nato, entangle Europe in Middle Eastern wars and bully countries into falling in line – including potentially giving up territory like Greenland.
In fact, Trump’s own geopolitical aims were on display last month in China, when he reportedly proposed that the US, China and Russia unite against the International Criminal Court. Such a proposal reflects Trump’s long-standing hostility towards global governance and a preference for spheres of influence.
The Trump administration has decided that Europe’s ‘civilisational decline’ is very much America’s business (Photo: Giorgio Viera/AFP)This does not mean that the US is turning isolationist. The Trump administration has no interest in abandoning Europe. No one in the administration wants Europe to fall under the sway of China, nor does the US want to see Europe develop its own independent military and strategic power.
European states are easier to manipulate as single national states rather than a combined entity. Like China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Trump would be happy for the EU to fall apart.
The Trump administration wants to see Europe’s nation states remain within the US sphere of influence. But the days when Washington would entice loyalty through favourable trade deals and generous military support are over.
Instead, the US has hit Europe’s exports with tariffs and forced fiscally constrained European governments to cough up more for their defences.
European leaders need to understand what Maga wants. Not a partnership – that requires equals. Not complete abandonment – Trump has no intention of letting Europe slip from his sphere of influence. What Maga wants is a vassal-like Europe: fiscally constrained, militarily dependent, politically fragmented and ideologically transformed into Maga’s own image.
The Trump administration respects only hard power and countries that look like red-state America. Unfortunately, a Europe remade in Maga’s white, anti-immigrant, anti-pluralist image would no longer be the Europe that enjoyed bipartisan support for the last 80 years. It would be a continent reverting to the divisions that produced two world wars.
The European punching bag has only one real option: to acquire some hard power and political unity of its own. Until then, enjoy being punched.
Glyn Morgan is director of the Moynihan Centre of European Studies at Syracuse University and author of The Rise and Fall of American Europe, published this month.
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