Donald Trump has accused European leaders of being “weak” and claimed their countries are “decaying” in an extraordinary attack on Washington’s traditionally closest allies.
The US president claimed European nations had failed to control migration or take decisive action to end the war in Ukraine, calling into question America’s longstanding alliances.
“I think they’re weak,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with Politico. “But I also think that they want to be so politically correct. I think they don’t know what to do. What they’re doing with immigration is a disaster.”
Asked whether foreign leaders deemed weak could still be friends of the United States, Trump said: “It depends. They’ll change their ideology, obviously, because the people coming in have a totally different ideology. It’s gonna make them much weaker.”
‘They don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do. They don’t know what to do on trade either,” he said. “They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak.”
His inflammatory comments followed a week of turbulent diplomacy as Europe rallied around Kyiv and Trump turned his ire back to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he accused of not having read the latest American peace proposals.
Fragile talks to end the war appeared on the brink of collapse after Donald Trump Jr said on Sunday his father might be ready to walk away altogether.
“They have to play ball,” Trump said when asked about his eldest son’s remarks. “If they don’t read agreements, potential agreements, it’s not easy.”
Zelensky met with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday during a tour to shore up support from European allies.
He said Italy had brought concrete ideas towards peace as he prepares to present Washington with a revised peace plan in the wake of talks with European leaders in London on Monday.
But the US president hit out at European efforts to end the war, arguing they had not led to results.
“They talk but they don't produce,” he said. “And the war just keeps going on and on. I mean, four years now it's been going on, long before I got here.”
In his latest broadside against immigration, Trump singled out leaders and cities in Europe for specific criticism.
He launched a fresh attack against London mayor Sadiq Khan, whom he called a “disaster” who “gets elected because so many people have come in”. He also hit out at Paris during a rant on migration to Europe, and claimed Sweden is a “pretty unsafe country”.
“If you take a look at Paris, it’s a much different place,” he said. “If you take a look at London, you have a mayor named Khan.
“He’s a horrible mayor. He’s an incompetent mayor, but he’s a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor ... London’s a different place. I love London ... And I hate to see it happen.”
By contrast, Trump praised Hungary’s right-wing leader and friend of Putin Viktor Orbán, saying he was “doing a very good job in a different sense on immigration”.
“And Poland has done a very good job in that respect, too,” Trump added. “But most European nations, they’re ... they’re decaying. They’re decaying.”
British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper defended the “crucial work” of the coalition of the willing and the “strong work” of the government in tackling illegal immigration as she was questioned on Trump’s criticism of Europe.
“What I see in Europe is strength,” she said. “The strength and commitment to the support for Ukraine and also strength to step up to the plate and to ensure that we are increasing our investment in defence, and also ensure that we are doing our bit through the coalition of the willing, as well as through investment in military support and the energy infrastructure support that Ukraine needs.”
Ms Cooper also defended Mayor Khan: “When it comes to the mayor of London, you will not be surprised that I of course take a strongly different view. I think the mayor is doing an excellent job for all of London.”
Downing Street declined to criticise Trump’s latest assault on the mayor.
“The prime minister has a strong relationship with the US president and a strong relationship with the mayor of London and on both is committed to working together to deliver stronger outcomes for the British people right across the country,” a spokesperson said.
Responding to Trump’s comments, European Council president António Costa urged the president to show “respect”.
“We respect the choice of Americans, and they need to respect the democratic choices of our citizens,” he said during a press conference.
“When all the leaders elect me president of the European Council, President Trump must respect this. As we respect that American citizens elected him President of the United States. It is like this, that allies behave with each other.”
Trump’s latest remarks broadly echo rhetoric included in America’s new national security strategy, which questioned whether some European nations could remain “reliable allies” in the long term.
The document branded Europe as being over-regulated and said it was facing “civilisational erasure”, a narrative that aligned with far-right parties.
The document did not name Russia as a threat to the US at a critical juncture in the war in Ukraine, as leaders rally to hash out a peace deal.
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