Trump grasps Europe’s ‘civilizational decline’ – Orban
US President Donald Trump understands that Europe is in decline, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
The new US National Security Strategy (NSS) released last week criticizes the EU’s political and cultural direction, warning of “civilizational erasure” and accusing European institutions of overregulation, destabilizing migration policies, and suppressing political opposition. It urges “patriotic European parties” to defend democratic freedoms and promote “unapologetic celebrations” of national identity.
“America has a precise understanding of Europe’s decline. They see the civilizational-scale decline that we in Hungary have been fighting against for fifteen years,” Orban wrote on X on Thursday.
Orban, who has served as prime minister since 2010, has long argued that the EU is suffering from economic stagnation and migration pressures. He has presented Hungary’s model of national sovereignty, strict border control, and conservative social policy as a corrective to what he views as Europe’s structural crisis.
He has also criticized the way the EU has handled the Ukraine conflict, saying it made a mistake by severing its channels with Moscow, and that the US now recognizes the need to rebuild strategic ties with Russia. Orban has urged Western governments to pursue diplomacy with the Kremlin rather than continuing “burning” money on the conflict, a stance that mirrors Trump’s push for a negotiated settlement.
Russia has welcomed aspects of the NSS as broadly consistent with its own strategic outlook, suggesting that the document could create new openings for cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
The reaction to the strategy in the EU was largely negative. Asked about the US criticism, the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said, “it seems to me it is made to be a provocation.” European Council President Antonio Costa warned the US against “interference in the political life of Europe.”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said some statements in the document are unacceptable.
Relations between the US and EU have been strained since Trump returned to the White House in January. They have regularly clashed over trade, defense spending, digital regulation, and the Ukraine conflict.
