{"id":105139,"date":"2026-06-08T12:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/105139\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T12:06:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:06:46","slug":"pete-hegseth-invokes-immigration-and-dangerous-ideologies-during-d-day-speech-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/105139\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth invokes immigration and &#8216;dangerous ideologies&#8217; during D-Day speech in France"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/06\/06\/world-news\/d-day-veterans-gather-in-normandy-to-mark-81st-anniversary-of-wwii-landings\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">D-Day anniversary<\/a> speech on Saturday to appear to link <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/29\/us-news\/illegal-immigrants-jump-into-the-sea-to-escape-the-law-only-to-get-fished-out-by-the-coast-guard\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">immigration by sea<\/a> to the wartime liberation of Europe, warning that the freedom won by Allied troops could prove temporary if leaders failed to defend it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/30\/us-news\/pete-hegseth-says-us-is-ready-to-restart-strikes-on-iran-if-no-deal-is-reached\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hegseth<\/a>, speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northwestern France during commemorations for the 82nd anniversary of the June 6, 1944, landings, said that today, \u201cdifferent European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive,\u201d US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth salutes during a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, on Saturday, June 6, 2026.\u00a0 AP Photo\/Jeremias Gonzalez<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth and official guests attend a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings, in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, on June 6, 2026.  AP Photo\/Jeremias Gonzalez<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?\u201d he added. \u201cI pray not, and I believe not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth did not use the word immigration, but his remarks echoed broader\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-migration-europe-prisons-a33c2622248d7314d2172078ec392356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Trump administration criticism of Europe over migration,<\/a>\u00a0borders and what US officials have described as censorship of nationalist and far-right voices.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s office condemned US Vice President JD Vance for blaming immigration for the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/uk-stabbing-arrest-racism-police-henry-nowak-71085810a12499ffa68721478e6e983c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">killing of Henry Nowak,<\/a>\u00a0an 18-year-old British student <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/02\/world-news\/cops-handcuff-henry-nowak-as-he-bled-out-after-sikh-knife-attack\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stabbed to death<\/a> in Southampton, even though both Nowak and his killer were British.<\/p>\n<p>In December, the Trump administration\u2019s national security strategy warned that Europe faced the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/munich-conference-europe-trump-rubio-kallas-0efc0b3d464f118e3e5d6748113c9271\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cprospect of civilizational erasure\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and could become \u201cunrecognizable\u201d within 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a D-Day anniversary speech on Saturday to appear to link immigration by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[120],"tags":[37441,245,493,18,11238,52],"class_list":["post-105139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pete-hegseth","tag-d-day","tag-france","tag-immigration","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-speeches","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116714404915909247","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}