Zürcher Nachrichten - Trump slams 'decaying' Europe and pushes Ukraine on elections

Speaking to Politico, Trump also called on Ukraine to hold elections despite Russia's invasion and questioned whether the country is truly democratic under President Volodmyr Zelensky.

Trump doubled down on his recent extraordinary criticisms of Europe, following the release of the new US national security strategy last week that recycled far-right tropes as it warned of civilizational decline on the continent.

"Most European nations, they're, they’re decaying. They’re decaying," Trump told Politico in the interview, conducted Monday.

The 79-year-old billionaire, whose political rise to power was built on inflammatory language about migration, echoed far-right talking points as he said that Europe's policies on migrants were a "disaster."

"They don’t want to send them back to where they came from," Trump said.

The Trump administration's strategy sparked alarm in Europe -- where most countries are part of the US-led NATO alliance -- by calling for the cultivation of "resistance" in the EU.

Asked if European countries would not remain US allies if they failed to embrace his migration policies, Trump replied that "it depends."

"I think they're weak, but they also want to be so politically correct," Trump said.

He listed countries including Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Sweden that he said were being "destroyed" by migration, and launched a new attack on the "horrible, vicious, disgusting" Sadiq Khan, London's first Muslim mayor.

Trump also brushed off the Kremlin hailing the new US strategy as echoing its own views, saying Putin "would like to see a weak Europe, and to be honest with you, he's getting that. That has nothing to do with me."

The US president then criticized Europe's role in resolving the war between Russia and Ukraine, saying: "They talk but they don’t produce. And the war just keeps going on and on."

- 'Not a democracy anymore' -

Washington and its European allies are increasingly at odds over Trump's plan to end the war, which many European capitals fear will force Kyiv to hand over territory to Moscow.

Trump also had sharp words for Ukraine and for Zelensky, in his latest see-saw in relations with the leader whom he called a "dictator without elections" in January and then berated in the Oval Office in February.

"I think it's an important time to hold an election. They’re using war not to hold an election." Trump said. "You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore."

Elections in Ukraine were due in March 2024 but have been postponed under the imposition of martial law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Fresh elections were included in the draft US plan to end the war.

Trump, who has long tried to cultivate close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, asserted that Moscow has the "upper hand" in the conflict by virtue of being "much bigger."

He also reiterated claims about Zelensky having not read the US plan. "It would be nice if he would read it. You know, a lot of people are dying," Trump said.

Top US negotiators met Putin in Moscow last week and then held days of negotiations with Ukrainian officials, but there has been no apparent breakthrough.

Trump even hinted at walking away from the Ukraine war. Asked about his son Don Jr.'s recent comment that he could soon do so, Trump said: "No, it’s not correct. But it’s not exactly wrong."

His comments came as Ukraine's European allies expressed solidarity with Kyiv in London on Monday, with Zelensky maintaining Ukraine has "no right" to cede the territories claimed by Moscow to Russia.

R.Bernasconi--NZN