Donald Trump blasts Europe as ‘decaying’ with ‘weak’ leaders
The US President launched a scathing attack on Europe over migration, political correctness and the war in Ukraine.
Donald Trump has denounced Europe as a “decaying” group of nations with “weak” leaders who are too politically correct and are failing to control immigration.
In a sweeping attack on some of Washington’s closest allies, the US President told Politico that European leaders had not taken decisive action to end the war between Russia and Ukraine accusing them of letting Kyiv fight “until they drop”.
“Europe doesn’t know what to do,” Mr Trump said in the interview, the transcript of which was published on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEDT).
“They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak.”
Insisting that he wanted to see a “strong Europe”, Mr Trump lashed immigration policies across the continent saying it was now a “different place”.
“And if it keeps going the way it’s going, Europe will not be … in my opinion, many of those countries will not be viable countries any longer. Their immigration policy is a disaster,” he said.
He heaped praise on Hungarian leader Viktor Orban’s tough immigration policies because “he allows nobody in his country”, and said Poland had also “ done a very good job in that respect”.
“But most European nations, they’re decaying,” he said.
On the Ukraine war, Mr Trump said Kyiv’s European allies “talk but they don’t produce”.
“And the war just keeps going on and on. I mean, four years now it’s been going on, long before I got here.”
Mr Trump’s criticism of European leaders comes after the release of his administration’s National Security Strategy at the weekend, which painted European nations as declining powers led by governments that suppress democracy.
In his interview with Politico, Mr Trump also questioned whether Ukraine was truly democratic, saying the country should hold elections and reiterated his sharp criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky.
He accused Kyiv of “using war” to avoid elections which have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“I think it’s an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people would … should have that choice,” Mr Trump said.
“You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.” Without martial law, a Ukrainian presidential election would have been due in March 2024.
Mr Trump reiterated the criticisms he made on Sunday about Mr Zelensky, claiming that the Ukrainian president had not read the US plan to end the war.
Days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials, including Mr Zelensky, ended Saturday without an apparent breakthrough, though the Ukrainian leader committed to conducting further talks toward “real peace.”
“Maybe he’s read it over the night. It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying,” Mr Trump said.
The US president asserted that Moscow has the “upper hand” in the conflict by virtue of being “much bigger.”
Pressed on whether he thought Ukraine had lost the war, Mr Trump replied: “Well, they’ve lost territory long before I got here,” and adding their losses have continued in the past 10 months.
His comments came as Ukraine’s European allies expressed solidarity with Kyiv in London on Monday, with Zelensky maintaining Ukraine has “no right” to cede the territories claimed by Moscow to Russia.
According to Mr Trump, “part of the problem” is that Mr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “really hate each other” and that it is therefore “it’s very hard for them to try and make a deal.”
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