Europe has entered a new state of alert in the face of US open hostility in areas that go beyond simple economic and technological competition and touch the deepest core of strategic and security issues.
A day after US military and civilian forces staged an illegal incursion into Venezuela, during which President Nicolás Maduro was kidnapped and captured and transported to New York City, Trump asserted that his country needs Greenland — an autonomous territory belonging to Denmark, a member of NATO.
“For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States,” Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said during a subsequent interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
In December, 2025, the Trump administration published its National Security Strategy, in which they explicitly attack on the EU, describing it as an entity that “undermines political liberty” and promotes “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition,” while promising to “cultivate resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.” The Americans intend to support European nationalist forces that seek to dismantle the community integration project and harassment of those who promote them.
“As far as Europe is concerned, Trump and his administration have shown great consistency and predictability: they want to destroy us,” warns Nathalie Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali. “Today, the United States considers liberal democracy and European integration to be adversaries.”
Andrea Rizzi and María R. Sahuquillo, El Pais: Europe on high alert in the face of Trump’s strategic onslaught https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-01-11/europe-on-high-alert-in-the-face-of-trumps-strategic-onslaught.html