After years of public criticism directed at Europe, US President Donald Trump put together a National Security Strategy (NSS) that reflected his twisted perceptions. Still, it is one thing to hear his stage rhetoric and another to see his worldview codified in official doctrine. Its core claim: Europe will be \u201cunrecognisable in 20 years\u201d due to \u201ccivilisational erasure\u201d unless the United States, \u201csentimentally attached\u201d to the continent, steps in to restore its \u201cformer greatness\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump is right, Europe has problems. But they are not what he claims.<\/p>\n
Decades of underinvestment in people, persistent political incentives to ignore excluded communities and a reluctance to confront how demographic and economic decline interact, go unaddressed. Political leaders largely avoid this conversation. Some deny these problems, others concede them privately while publicly debating symptoms but not addressing the root causes.<\/p>\n
A clearer perspective can be found among those who live with these failures. Across Europe, millions in the working class struggle to survive amid shuttered factories, underfunded schools, unaffordable housing and broken public services. Among them, the Roma sharpen the picture. As Europe\u2019s largest and most dispossessed minority, their experience exposes the continent\u2019s choice to treat entire populations as collateral damage. When Trump presses on Europe\u2019s wounds, these communities confirm where it hurts.<\/p>\n
What Trump gets right about Europe<\/p>\n
The NSS argues that Europe\u2019s \u201clack of self-confidence\u201d is most visible in its relationship with Russia. Yes, Europe\u2019s paralysis towards Moscow contrasts with its aggression towards weaker groups at home. This reflects the lack of confidence in European values.<\/p>\n
Trump is right. We\u2019re weak. If we were strong, we would stand up for European values of democracy and pluralism. We would not demonise our minorities.<\/p>\n
But we do. Across the continent, Roma communities face racist policies. In Slovenia, following a bar fight that spiralled into public hysteria, the national legislature passed a law in November to securitise Roma neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n
In Portugal, Andre Ventura of the far-right Chega party put up posters saying \u201cG****es have to obey the law\u201d as part of his presidential campaign. In Italy, far-right politician Matteo Salvini built an entire political brand on anti-Roma paranoia. In Greece, the police shoot at Roma youth for minor crimes.<\/p>\n
Leaders over-securitise the Roma while overcompensating for their caution towards Russia.<\/p>\n
The NSS also highlights Europe\u2019s declining share of global gross domestic product, from 25 percent in 1990 to 14 percent today. Regulations play a part, so does demographic decline, but the deeper problem is Europe\u2019s failure to invest in all its people.<\/p>\n
Twelve million Roma, the youngest population in Europe, remain locked out of education, employment and entrepreneurship through structural barriers and discrimination, even though surveys show their overwhelming willingness to contribute to the societies they live in and their high success rates when they run businesses that receive support.<\/p>\n