The Trump administration’s most recent National Security Strategy (NSS) marks a fundamental break with previous U.S. foreign policy toward Europe. For the first time, the focus of the threat analysis is not Russia or China, but Europe. In Brussels, Berlin and Paris the document is read as an attack on the core of the European project: liberal democracies, multilateral institutions and a common security framework are being put to the test. What had until now been implicit is now explicit policy: the transatlantic alliance is losing relevance for Washington.
A new tone from Washington
The NSS 2025 paints a picture of Europe as a continent in crisis: “civilizational decay” due to migration, demographic decline, endangered national identities and an allegedly incompetent political elite. The text openly praises the rise of “patriotic” European parties that oppose the European integration project. In fact, the section on Europe reads like an ideological manifesto of the European right – no wonder France’s former UN ambassador Gérard Araud called it a “pamphlet of the extreme right.”
Added to this is the requirement that Europe should take over substantial parts of NATO’s defense capabilities by 2027 – from reconnaissance to missile defense. This timeline appears to many capitals as a disguised withdrawal of the United States from its security-policy obligations. Political scientist Henry Farrell calls it a “wake-up call” for Europe: “If America treats its allies as adversaries, they will look for alternatives.”
Revisionist Transatlanticism
What is suggested here is a strategic and ideological realignment: the United States are not only withdrawing militarily but want to actively influence Europe’s political architecture. The term “revisionist transatlanticism,” coined by Brookings researchers Tara Varma and Sophia Besch, hits the mark. It refers to a transatlantic axis between a nationalistic Washington and European right-wing parties that question shared liberal values and instead promote ethno-nationalist conceptions of order.
Trump’s political rapprochement with Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán and his support for concepts like “remigration” fit the picture. At the same time, the NSS’s criticism is aimed at “unstable minority governments” in Europe – a direct jab at liberal centrists like Emmanuel Macron or Friedrich Merz.
Security architecture under pressure
In fact, Europe is threatened with a geopolitical vacuum: Without American security guarantees and with growing internal pressure from nationalist movements, both NATO and the EU come under pressure on legitimacy. The call for European sovereignty in defense matters sounds in this context less like a partner appeal than like an ultimatum.
At the same time, it is clear that Russia knows how to exploit this dynamic: Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly praised the new US strategy as “largely in line with our point of view.” A geopolitical alliance between revisionist forces in Washington, Moscow and parts of Europe would be a tectonic rupture for the liberal world order.
Macron and Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned in an apparently leaked transcript of a conversation about a “quick political deal” between Trump and Russia – at the expense of Ukraine. In a speech in Beijing, Macron warned: “Only in the unity of Europe and the United States lies the strength to resolve such conflicts permanently.”
Trump’s strategy paper could prove to be a double tipping point: for American foreign policy and for Europe’s self-image. It forces Europeans to rethink their dependence on Washington – in security policy, technology and economics. The coming months will show whether Europe manages to use this challenge for a strategic renewal or whether internal fragmentation continues to advance.
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