From The Telegraph, December 11:
Leaked document reveals how US can ‘Make Europe Great Again’
The Trump administration intends to pull four countries away from the European Union (EU), according to a leaked copy of the US National Security Strategy (NSS).
The official NSS, released on Dec 4, warned that Europe faced “civilisational erasure” if it did not cut migration and would be “unrecognisable in 20 years or less” if present trends continued.
But a longer version of the strategy, which was reportedly circulated before the White House unclassified the 29-page document, is more explicit about how the US can “Make Europe Great Again”.
The White House denied the longer version existed, calling reports “fake news”.
The NSS proposes that the US work on fostering relationships with European countries aligned with the Trump administration, according to Defence One.
The document reportedly lists Italy, Hungary, Poland and Austria as countries the US should “work more with... the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union]”.
Mr Trump has made no secret of his affection for Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s conservative prime minister.
He described his Italian counterpart as a “fantastic woman” who had “taken Europe by storm” when she visited Mar-a-Lago ahead of his inauguration.
He further extended his praise to the Brothers of Italy leader during her Oval Office visit in April and praised her as “beautiful” during the Middle East peace summit in Egypt in October.
The US president has also had a close relationship with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, having welcomed him to the White House last month. Mr Trump has endorsed Mr Orban before the Hungarian elections next year, describing him as “fantastic” and handing Hungary an exemption on sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas.
The longer NSS is also understood to note that the US “should support parties, movements, and intellectual and cultural figures who seek sovereignty and preservation/restoration of traditional European ways of life…while remaining pro-American”.
This appears to build on the official document’s focus on trying to “cultivate resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”, eyeing potential allies in the “growing influence of patriotic European parties”.
The parties are left unnamed but presumed to include Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, Vox in Spain, Reform in the UK, the AfD in Germany and Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy....
....MUCH MORE
