Translated by Annachiara Laino
The first ten months of Trump's second term have been marked by significant foreign policy activity on the part of the United States (US). Following the trade war and declarations regarding the possible annexation of Canada, Greenland, and Panama, President Donald Trump intervened to end eight conflicts around the world, thus earning himself the title "President of Peace." In November alone, President Trump's meetings with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Chinese President Xi Jinping brought global attention back to US diplomacy and the new regional dynamics underway, in some cases opposite to those pursued during the Biden administration.
For these reasons, the Trump administration's release of the National Security Strategy (NSS), which took place in the first week of December, was eagerly awaited by the international community. The NSS is a key document for clarifying US foreign policy priorities and understanding what to expect from Washington during the coming years of Donald Trump's term.
In line with the National Security Strategy, released during the first Trump administration in 2017, the document focuses on the America First doctrine: the primary objective is to ensure the primacy of the American economy and well-being, defending the country's stability from risks deriving primarily from migration and transnational criminal networks, identified as the greatest threats to the stability and governance of the United States.
The NSS also mentions national sovereignty among the fundamental principles the United States must protect, including from threats posed by international organizations. The defense of sovereignty implicitly implies a diminished US interest in multilateralism and support for international institutions, as already demonstrated by the cuts to USAID programs announced in January 2025. At the same time, the principle of national sovereignty is also used to support a "non-interventionist" stance, reiterating that the focus of US policy should not be global affairs, but solely national, or rather, continental, interests.
The document is presented as a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, affirming the supremacy, including military, of the United States over the entire American continent. This supremacy is considered essential to counter drug trafficking and migration from South America, which the Trump administration perceives as the greatest risks to the country's security. However, the reference to the Monroe Doctrine also expresses the goal of reducing the penetration of foreign powers, such as China, into the South American region.
And it is precisely in the approach to China and competition among global powers that the main innovations introduced by the 2025 NSS emerge. In 2017, the strategy's priority was global competition among great powers, and China, described as an actor intent on shaping a world antithetical to American values, was considered the United States' greatest competitor and threat. Eight years later, China's role has been downsized: the Asian giant is described in pragmatic terms as a partner with which to cooperate to benefit the US economy.
The shift from global competition to maintaining primacy, primarily at a continental level, expresses the domestic priorities of the Trump presidency. The document delegates the maintenance of the balance of power to US-allied regional powers, in accordance with the principles of burden-sharing and burden-shifting, already present in the NATO Summit Declaration held in The Hague in June 2025, during which member countries agreed to allocate at least 5% of their annual GDP to defense, allowing the United States to reduce its contribution to Euro-Atlantic defense.
Saving European Civilization
In addition to reiterating governments' shortcomings regarding military spending and the progressive decline in the European Union's relevance and economic competitiveness, the document presents a new internal danger for the EU: "civilisational erasure", or the obliteration of European civilisation.
The danger to civilization is identified as the most imminent threat to European stability and is caused by the continent's demographic transformation, due to overly permissive migration policies, as well as the interference of supranational institutions, particularly the European Union, in national affairs. This would lead to a reduction in national sovereignty, economic and political freedoms, and, more generally, the democratic governance of the EU. The erosion of democracy would be evident, according to the US narrative, precisely in the perpetration of the war in Ukraine, which continues despite the opposition of the majority of European governments.
The absence of any mention of Russian responsibility for the war in Ukraine, combined with the explicit intention to halt NATO expansion, signals a partial understanding between Washington and Moscow. The strategy proposes the restoration of EU-Russia relations as its primary European objective, in order to ensure security and economic recovery in the region.
However, the second objective presented returns to the issue of security, stating its intention to address Europe's lack of self-confidence in the defense sector and reduce dependence on the United States, thus allowing EU countries to independently develop their own military capabilities. The issue of "European civilization," however, remains central to the strategy's other objectives, and it is precisely in addressing the European continent and NATO countries that the ambiguity of the non-interventionist tendencies proclaimed by the document emerges. The NSS expresses the explicit US objective of helping Europe correct its trajectory and save its civilization, restoring democracy and freedom of speech, and promoting the celebration of the greatness of European history and cultures, as well as national patriotism and the revival of the European spirit.
Europe between political interests and pragmatism
Despite the document's blunt rhetoric, Trump's foreign policy manifesto is dominated by a pragmatism aimed at achieving greater stability among regional powers, always under US guidance (as in the case of resolving the war in Ukraine), especially to ensure greater economic benefits and allow the US to focus on domestic issues.
In relations with the European Union, the priority given to economic interests is evident not only in the criticism of EU regulations, which have stifled the Union's economic growth since the 1990s, but also in the push for a more independent NATO and a Europe capable of guaranteeing its own continental defense. However, the strategy also highlights Trump's political interests, which could have significant repercussions for the EU's future. When mentioning censorship, the reduction of freedoms, and democratic instability in Europe, he primarily refers to right-wing nationalist parties, such as the German AfD, the Slovakian SMER, and the Hungarian Fidesz, which have already found common ground with the Trump administration's MAGA policies.
The risk is that the rhetoric of European greatness and support for parties promoting nationalism and the "European spirit" will, over time, translate into a pervasive form of US political interference in European affairs. This would undermine the internal political balance of individual states, with consequences for the institutional and ideological fabric of the EU, jeopardizing the decision-making autonomy and cohesion of the long-term European project and creating, over time, a Union that reflects MAGA values and policies rather than European ideals.
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