Will Europe Ever Recover?
The continent is in even worse shape than what the National Security Strategy suggests.
The Trump Administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) provides a rare official statement on the main threats facing the United States, as well as lays out strategies to address them. Typically released once per presidential term, this administration’s NSS focuses on how the U.S. can reestablish its military and economic might in a world that’s clearly moved well beyond the post-Cold War era. As stated in its introduction, the document aims to be a “roadmap to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history, and the home of freedom on earth.”
Part of advocating a foreign policy of “principled realism” is pointing out how Europe, an important U.S. partner going back centuries, has been actively rejecting its historic ways of life.
The Trump NSS details several serious challenges the continent faces, including economic stagnation. However, that issue is overshadowed by the impact of mass immigration, which is transforming Europe by “creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.” The NSS forecasts that if current trends persist, Europe may become unrecognizable within two decades, as it is at risk of “civilizational erasure.”
Even now, however, London is already unrecognizable. Many of its boroughs have seen a substantial demographic shift in recent years. In Barking and Dagenham, the percentage of residents who identified as white British fell from approximately 82% in 2001 to 30% in 2021, a more than 60% decline in just 20 years. Newham has the lowest percentage of white British citizens of any London borough, at 15%. Ten of London’s 32 boroughs have a majority non-white population. The Midlands cities of Leicester and Birmingham are designated “majority minority,” with white people accounting for 41% and 43% of the population, respectively.
As a result of the obsession with mass immigration among European nations, millions have been imported, many of whom hold values that are antithetical to Western democracies. Others simply despise us and our way of life.
Approximately 75% of counter-terrorism work conducted by MI5—the British equivalent of the FBI—focuses on Islamic terrorism. Two of the suicide bombers who killed 90 people at the Bataclan theater in Paris in 2015 exploited well-traveled migration routes to reach Europe and seek asylum. The terrorists who killed eight people on London Bridge in 2017 were migrants from Morocco and Pakistan. Axel Rudakubana, who carried out a frenzied stabbing spree in Southport last year, which resulted in the deaths of three young girls, is the child of Rwandan immigrants. Just last week, two Afghan teenage asylum seekers were sentenced to ten years in prison for raping a 15-year-old girl. Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders in 2015, and armed guards now patrol Christmas markets after several prominent terrorist attacks. Last week, police arrested five immigrants—one Egyptian, three Moroccans, and a Syrian—who are suspected of planning a truck attack in Bavaria.
Before the NSS, Trump had long warned about Europe’s issues with mass immigration. In a recent interview with Politico, he discussed how even Sweden has become an unsafe place due to the kind of people being let into the country.
Earlier this year, Sweden’s Lund University conducted a major study that found that an alarming number of migrants who have committed sexual assault live in the country. A study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, “Immigrant Background and Rape Conviction: A 21-Year Follow-Up Study in Sweden,” found that 63% of those convicted of rape between 2000 and 2020 had “immigrant backgrounds.” Data also revealed that individuals who had lived in Sweden for less than five years were nearly seven times more likely to be convicted compared to the general population.
Even after controlling for socioeconomic background, mental illness, and substance abuse, foreign-born people continue to be significantly overrepresented among those convicted of rape. Journalist Joakim Lamotte noted that “if the problem can no longer be explained away with socio-economics, then something more uncomfortable remains. Namely, that norms, values, views on women and how irresponsible migration policies can have life-threatening consequences.” When Sweden liberalized its migration policies, it had to teach migrant men from the Middle East and Africa civics classes that included a session on how to be tolerant toward women.
In his interview with Politico, Trump also stated that political correctness has led to the weakening of European nations. “Weak” is certainly one way to describe it. Cowardice might be the better descriptor. What else do you call the authorities’ unwillingness to speak out about the systematic rape and assault of young white working-class girls by males of Pakistani heritage throughout England for fear of being labeled racists? Meanwhile, an ever-expanding list of protected characteristics is being enacted into law to prevent the electorate from questioning and criticizing legitimate concerns about the harmful consequences of mass immigration. The NSS alleges that this plus a host of other policies pursued by the European Commission “undermine political liberty and sovereignty.”
Another notable illustration of the general downward trend is the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA). Originally intended to protect children from harmful and adult-oriented material on the internet, the legislation, introduced by Conservatives and enacted by Labour in July, grants the broadcasting regulator Ofcom the authority to compel companies to adhere to new safety regulations. Companies that fail to comply face punitive measures, including fines of up to 10% of their annual global revenue and potential legal action. This legislation is now affecting the commercial interests of U.S.-based firms.
In an unprecedented move, the internet chat forum 4chan has initiated legal proceedings against Ofcom following being assessed a £20,000 fine for its failure to supply information on alleged illegal content hosted on its platform.
This is not the only piece of authoritarian legislation that has been recently made law. The E.U.’s Digital Services Act of 2022 created a unified regulatory framework that aims to ensure online safety and eliminate illegal online content such as “hate speech.” It introduces a “duty of care” comparable to that of the OSA, with non-compliance potentially resulting in fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover. This law is enforceable across all 27 E.U. member states. In December, Elon Musk banned the European Commission from advertising on X following the regulator’s imposition of a €120 million fine on the company over allegations that its blue tick badges were misleading.
Fortunately, due to the protections afforded by the First Amendment, unelected foreign bureaucrats have no legal authority inside the United States to determine what platforms can publish. The State Department’s characterization of social media regulation in the U.K. and E.U. as “Orwellian” is on the mark.
As a British citizen, it’s hard not to take notice of the toxic combination of mass immigration and censorship that has fractured and eroded a once-great continent. Europe once exported the gift of liberty, but it now stands on the verge of extinction.