{"id":494959,"date":"2026-01-05T21:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T21:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494959\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T21:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T21:33:09","slug":"a-warning-not-an-insult-us-doubles-down-on-criticism-of-europe-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/494959\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A warning not an insult\u2019: US doubles down on criticism of Europe | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s administration has doubled down on its recent criticism of Europe, saying last month\u2019s US national security strategy<\/a> was an attempt to \u201cjolt\u201d an ally back to economic life.<\/p>\n

The document was widely condemned in Europe as representing a seismic shift in the 70-year transatlantic alliance with its dark references to a purported threat of \u201ccivilisational erasure\u201d<\/a> with migration and censorship creating \u201cstrife\u201d, \u201ccratering birthrates\u201d and \u201closs of national identities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Its threat to interfere in European politics and oppose what it termed as \u201celite-driven, anti-democratic restrictions on core liberties in Europe\u201d was condemned as unacceptable<\/a> by the president of the European Council of leaders, Ant\u00f3nio Costa.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Jacob Helberg, the US under secretary of state for economic affairs, told reporters the strategy was in fact a response to what Washington saw as an economic crisis and over-regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the national security strategy, the language around Europe<\/a> and around civilisational erasure drew a lot of attention in Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019d like to highlight is that that language is a warning. It\u2019s not an insult \u2026 because there is a growing sense of concern and alarm in the United States about the fact that Europe\u2019s economic, relative economic decline as a share of the global GDP is a crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a degree of alarm in Washington about the need for serious reforms in order to jolt the European economy back to life. We think it\u2019s possible with the right reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes the US was seeking, Helberg said, centred on the opportunity to \u201cdrastically simplify and reduce the regulatory burden in Europe\u201d, which he claimed would free up talent and capital on the European continent and attract US investment.<\/p>\n

The US has repeatedly threatened not to lift 50% steel tariffs on the EU<\/a> if the bloc does not roll back on tech legislation hitting its billionaires including Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

Helberg said the bloc was falling way behind other leading economies such as the US and Washington desired a strong Europe to maintain the \u201chistoric 70-year plus of a transatlantic alliance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Countries such as Italy and Germany are experiencing modest GDP growth. Germany recorded no growth in the third quarter of 2025<\/a>, while it was projected to grow 1.3% in 2026 and 1.4% in 2027.<\/p>\n

Overall the bloc\u2019s own estimates<\/a> project growth of 1.4% for 2025 and 1.5% in 2027.<\/p>\n

By comparison the US economy rose<\/a> at an annualised rate of 4.3% in the third quarter of 2025, rebounding after a contraction<\/a> in the first three months of the year amid fears over the impact of Trump\u2019s tariff strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s administration has doubled down on its recent criticism of Europe, saying last month\u2019s US national security…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":494960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-494959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115844638704715978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}