Europe hits back after US civilization erasure claim

European politicians and officials have reacted with disappointment to a suggestion from the United States that Europe is facing "civilizational erasure".

The claim was made in a 33-page National Security Strategy released on Friday that focuses greatly on the US relationship with Europe.

The document goes on to say European countries could become dominated by non-Europeans, and cease to be reliable allies for Washington.

US President Donald Trump said the document, which outlines his long-term global military and economic strategies, is essentially his "roadmap" to ensure the US remains "the greatest and most successful nation in human history".

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul reacted by saying Berlin does not need "outside advice".

The BBC quoted him as saying the "United States is, and will remain, our most important ally in the alliance", but that the alliance is "focused on addressing security policy issues".

"I believe questions of freedom of expression or the organization of our free societies do not belong (in the strategy), in any case, at least when it comes to Germany," he said, referring to the document's criticism of European policies and its ways of life.

Jason Crow, the Democratic Party's representative for the US state of Colorado, who sits on the US House of Representatives committees overseeing intelligence services and the armed forces, went even further, saying the document will be "catastrophic to America's standing in the world and a retreat from our alliances and partnerships".

Trump's strategy criticizes Europe for its tolerance of refugees and its enthusiasm for non-polluting forms of energy and calls for the restoration of "Western identity", less foreign influence, an end to mass migration, and more attention to US priorities. And it contends Europe could become unrecognizable in 20 years, if today's leaders fail to make the changes Trump has called for.

"It is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies," it adds.

The strategy criticizes the European Union for presiding over what it sees as the current decline, and praises what it calls "patriotic European parties", which are thought to refer to far-right entities such as the AfD party in Germany.

The document concludes that the US under Trump "is motivated above all by what works for America — or, in two words, "America First".

Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, posted on X that it puts the US "to the right of the extreme right in Europe".

And Gerard Araud, a former ambassador of France to the United States, said on X it "largely confirms "the sense that Trump is an "enemy of Europe".

"The stunning section devoted to Europe reads like a far-right pamphlet," Araud added.