Security Plan a Diagnosis Not Insult to Europe, US Official Says

December 16, 2025, 5:45 PM UTC

The Trump administration’s recently released national security strategy was not intended as empty criticism of Europe but was designed to help steer the continent back on track, a top State Department official said.

“The president’s national security strategy was not an insult, it was a diagnosis,” Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic affairs said Tuesday in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

The Trump national security team’s unusually blunt strategy document warned that a declining Europe lacked “self-confidence” and risked “civilizational erasure” as a result of immigration and weak political leadership. It charged that those leaders were ...

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