Key Points
- Trump criticised Europe, calling it "decaying" and its governments "weak," especially over migration and Ukraine.
- He questioned Ukraine’s democracy, urging the country to hold elections despite the ongoing war with Russia.
- European leaders are concerned that Trump’s plan to end the war could force Ukraine to give up territory.
US President Donald Trump deepened his rift with Europe in a new interview, calling it "decaying" and blasting key allies as "weak" over immigration and Ukraine.
Speaking to Politico on Tuesday, Trump also called on Ukraine to hold elections despite Russia's invasion and questioned whether the country is truly democratic under President Volodmyr Zelenskyy.
Trump doubled down on his recent criticisms of Europe, following the release of the new US national security strategy last week that recycled far-right tropes as it warned of civilisational decline on the continent.
"Most European nations, they're, they’re decaying. They’re decaying," Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted Monday.
The 79-year-old billionaire, whose political rise to power was built on inflammatory language about migration, echoed far-right talking points as he said that Europe's policies on migrants were a "disaster".
"They don’t want to send them back to where they came from," Trump said.
Concern in Europe
The Trump administration's strategy sparked alarm in Europe — where most countries are part of the US-led NATO alliance — by calling for the cultivation of "resistance" in Europe.
Asked if European countries would not remain US allies if they failed to embrace his migration policies, Trump replied that "it depends".
"I think they're weak, but they also want to be so politically correct," Trump said.
He listed countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden that he said were being "destroyed" by migration, and launched a new attack on the "horrible, vicious, disgusting" Sadiq Khan, London's first Muslim mayor.
Trump also brushed off the Kremlin hailing the new US strategy as echoing its own views, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin "would like to see a weak Europe, and to be honest with you, he's getting that. That has nothing to do with me".
The US president then criticised Europe's role in resolving the war between Russia and Ukraine, saying: "They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on."
The US and its European allies are increasingly at odds over Trump's plan to end the war, which many European capitals fear will force Ukraine to hand over territory to Russia.
Trump calls for elections in Ukraine
Trump also had sharp words for Ukraine and for Zelenskyy, in his latest see-saw in relations with the leader whom he called a "dictator without elections" in January and then berated in the Oval Office in February.
"I think it's an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election." Trump said. "You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore."
His comments came as Ukraine's European allies expressed solidarity with Ukraine in London on Monday, with Zelenskyy maintaining Ukraine has "no right" to cede the territories claimed by Putin to Russia.
Elections in Ukraine were due in March 2024 but have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Fresh elections were included in the draft US plan to end the war.
Zelenskyy responds
Zelenskyy told reporters on Tuesday he would likely be ready to hand over a revised version of the proposal to the US on Wednesday.
He also indicated he was prepared to hold new elections.
"I am ready for the elections," Zelensky told journalists, adding that he is asking Ukrainian officials to prepare "proposals regarding the possibility of amending the legislative foundations and the law on elections during martial law".
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