Trump’s Security Strategy Breaks With Europe — and Echoes the Kremlin
A bleak U.S. security reset for Europe, a softer line on Russia — and now a hint Washington could abandon Ukraine.
This week, Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy landed in Europe like a political thunderclap — warning of “civilisational erasure,” soft-pedalling Russia as a threat, and openly encouraging political resistance to Europe’s current trajectory from within. The Kremlin swiftly welcomed the document as “largely consistent” with its own worldview. European leaders, by contrast, recoiled — cautiously but unmistakably alarmed.
That tension played out on stage at the Doha Forum, where Christiane Amanpour pressed EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Washington’s newly confrontational doctrine. In the video I include today, Kallas stresses unity and the endurance of the transatlantic alliance — but to my ear, her answers sound dangerously naive, or worse, an attempt to butter up a White House that has already signalled it may be game over for Europe as we have long understood it.
Then came another political shockwave. Donald Trump Jr. publicly accused Ukraine of endemic corruption, took aim at Volodymyr Zelensky, and openly suggested that his father may walk away from Ukraine altogether if Kyiv does not make peace with Russia. While Zelensky himself is not accused of corruption, his inner circle has been shaken by investigations — including the recent resignation of his powerful chief negotiator and chief of staff. The message from Trump’s inner orbit was blunt: U.S. support is no longer guaranteed, and unpredictability is the strategy.
All of this is unfolding as Ukraine remains under relentless Russian bombardment and as Washington quietly realigns its global priorities in ways that increasingly echo Kremlin narratives. Let me be clear: this week may mark one of the most dangerous inflection points in transatlantic relations since the Cold War.
US President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy, unveiled by the US administration this week, suggests Europe is facing “civilisational erasure” and does not cast Russia as a threat to the US. Combatting foreign influence, ending mass migration, and rejecting the EU’s perceived practice of “censorship” are mentioned as other priorities in the report. The BBC reported that several EU officials and analysts had pushed back on the strategy, questioning its focus on freedom of expression and likening it to language used by the Kremlin. In the document, the EU is blamed for blocking US efforts to end the conflict and says that the US must “re-establish strategic stability to Russia” which would “stabilise European economies”. It appears to endorse efforts to influence policy on the continent, noting that US policy should prioritise “resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”. The new report also calls for the restoration of “Western identity”, and claims that Europe will be “unrecognisable in 20 years or less” and its economic issues are “eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure”. The document states: “It is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.” In stark contrast, the document celebrates the influence of “patriotic European parties” and says “America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit”. As the EU engages in ongoing talks with the Trump administration to set out a peace deal in Ukraine, some officials emphasised their lasting relationship with the US, while raising “questions” over the document. “The US will remain our most important ally in the [Nato] alliance. This alliance, however, is focused on addressing security policy issues,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Friday. “I believe questions of freedom of expression or the organisation of our free societies do not belong [in the strategy], in any case at least when it comes to Germany.” In a social media post addressed to his “American friends”, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that “Europe is your closest ally, not your problem” and noted their “common enemies”. “This is the only reasonable strategy of our common security. Unless something has changed.” Meanwhile, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt wrote that the document “places itself to the right of the extreme right”.
Russia has welcomed the new U.S. National Security Strategy, calling it “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision. “The adjustments we’re seeing... are largely consistent with our vision,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published by Russia’s state news agency Tass on Sunday. “We consider this a positive step,” he said, adding that Moscow would continue to analyse the document before drawing strong conclusions. The strategy adopts a softer language towards Russia, which EU officials worry could weaken its stance towards Moscow as it pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine. - BBC
At the Doha Forum, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour challenges EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas over Washington’s new national security strategy. Kallas defends Europe’s unity and stresses the enduring U.S.–EU alliance despite rising tensions.
Donald Trump Jr. criticized corruption in Ukraine and suggested Sunday that his father may walk away from the country if it doesn’t make peace with Russia. Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, stressed that Ukraine has long been hamstrung by corruption in its official ranks and argued that such graft is fueling the war in both Moscow and Kyiv. He also took shots at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader is under political threat because of a corruption investigation that has ensnared some of his top aides. One such aide, Andriy Yermak, recently resigned. Yermak often led Ukraine’s international negotiations. Zelenskyy himself has not been accused of corruption. “Because of the war, and because he’s one of the great marketers of all times, Zelenskyy became a borderline deity, especially to the left, where he could do no wrong, he was beyond reproach,” Trump Jr. said. When asked if the U.S. president could walk away from Ukraine, the younger Trump said, “I think he may.” He added: “What’s good about my father, and what’s unique about my father, is you don’t know what he’s going to do. The fact that he’s not predictable … forces everyone to actually deal in an intellectually honest capacity.”
Three days of negotiations between Ukrainian and US officials in Miami ended with a positive tone, but produced no evident breakthrough, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to meet European leaders for peace talks on Monday. Following the talks in Florida, Zelensky said on Telegram that “Ukraine is committed to continuing to work honestly with the American side to bring about real peace,” adding that the parties agreed on the next steps and a format for talks, without disclosing further details. Zelenskyy will next turn to European allies when he visits London on December 8 to discuss the peace process with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Questions remain over what the final US peace plan will look like and whether Russia is willing to make concessions to its maximalist positions that it has held since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “Right now we are not talking about some sort of a cease-fire but a perspective of a fast settlement [of the conflict] -- that’s what it’s all about,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told Russian state media in comments that aired on December 7. “We are working with [the Americans] in that context.” Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on December 7, Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said that a deal to end the Ukraine war was “really close,” but the Kremlin said there had to be radical changes to some of the US proposals. Kellogg said that efforts were in “the last 10 meters,” which he said was always the hardest - RFE/RL
Melinda Haring, a Senior Adviser at Razom for Ukraine, a Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, and a board member of the East Europe Foundation explains what it’s like to spend time in a bomb shelter in one of the central Kyiv hotels….
Treason? It is difficult to know what else to call Mr. Trump’s constant deference to the wishes of both Vladimir Putin and, less conspicuously, Xi Jinping…The latest example: the 28-point “peace plan” that Mr. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff adopted as America’s proposal to end the war in Ukraine. It isn’t a peace plan, of course: it’s a surrender demand, in which Ukraine would be obliged, inter alia, to yield territory it had not lost in battle, cut its troop levels in half, and forever forswear membership in NATO. It isn’t America’s plan: it was literally written in the Kremlin. And it wasn’t some personal whim of Mr. Witkoff’s to endorse it. Mr. Trump is every bit as much in thrall to Mr. Putin as the obviously starry-eyed Mr. Witkoff.
Whatever the reason – some sort of kompromat; Mr. Trump’s man-crush on Mr. Putin; or the opportunities for corrupt gain Mr. Trump and his circle have been offered, as the Wall Street Journal has lately reported – the point must surely be clear by now. Mr. Trump is not merely an unreliable mediator, a naif who has been repeatedly duped by Mr. Putin’s promises. He is on his side. In the short term, the “peace plan” buys time for Mr. Putin, as so many similar bad-faith efforts have previously, staving off yet another round of sanctions, delaying yet another delivery of weaponry for Ukraine. In the longer term, if it were adopted in anything like its current form, it would offer up Ukraine to him on the instalment plan, allowing Russia to regroup and recover before attacking again - Andrew Coyne, The Globe and Mail
Smugglers, money launderers and people facing sanctions have switched from relying on diamonds, gold and artwork to store illicit fortunes - to stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar that exists largely beyond traditional financial oversight. These digital tokens can be bought with a local currency and moved across borders almost instantly. Or they can be returned to the traditional banking system — including by converting funds into debit cards — often without detection, a New York Times review of corporate filings, online forum messages and blockchain data shows. A report released in February from Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, estimated that up to $25 billion in illicit transactions involved stablecoins last year. And as more Russian oligarchs, Islamic State leaders and others have begun using the cryptocurrency, the rise of these dollar-linked tokens threatens to undermine one of America’s most potent foreign policy tools: cutting adversaries off from the dollar and the global banking system. “Bad actors are moving faster than ever before,” said Ari Redbord, a former Treasury official and the head of policy at TRM Labs, a blockchain data company. Sanctions and other economic penalties, he said, lose force when criminals can move millions with a few clicks. Governments are racing to contain the activity. Late last month, Britain arrested members of a billion-dollar money-laundering network that purchased a bank in Kyrgyzstan in order to help evade sanctions and facilitate payments in support of Russian military efforts. For a fee, Britain’s National Crime Agency said, the launderers would convert money, often generated from the drug trade, firearm sales and human trafficking, to Tether, the most popular stablecoin. “These ‘cash to crypto’ swaps are an integral part of a global criminal ecosystem,” said Sal Melki, deputy director for economic crime at the National Crime Agency - NYT
The journals……
