The US, under President Donald Trump, is exporting its culture war into Europe, deliberately dragging the continent’s politics to the Right.
That is according to a new report from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
The think-tank claims that what was once a shared western identity has splintered.
Instead of co-operation, Europe now finds itself reacting to crises “scripted” by Washington, such as disputes over migration, climate policy, free speech and even so-called “wokeism”, it said.
The study, published on September 23 and compiled by 27 researchers across the EU, argues that Trump’s “weaponisation” of issues such as migration, climate, wokeism and free speech is no accident. It is part of a co-ordinated international movement “determined to overthrow Europe’s liberal democratic order”, it said.
The ECFR describes this as a battle on two fronts.
First comes the ideological stage: Open disputes about democracy, freedom and the rule of law. These, the report argues, are being reshaped by Trump and his allies to shift the political centre ground in Europe.
The second front is identity. By depicting Europeans as naïve, dependent, or strategically incompetent, Trump’s US undermines the continent’s dignity and autonomy.
In the Trumpist narrative, Europe’s mainstream parties, allied with US Democrats, are traitors to the West’s heritage
If European leaders internalise this narrative, the report warns, the EU risks a creeping “cultural subordination”.
“Europe’s governments and their liberals spend most of their energy reacting to crises scripted by Trump and his European allies, rather than setting the agenda themselves,” the study states.
The author of the report, Pavel Zerka, an ECFR senior policy fellow, compared the situation to The Truman Show, with European leaders trapped in a “scripted reality” dictated from abroad. In the 1998 film, an insurance salesman begins to suspect that his whole life is actually some sort of reality TV show.
The study authors conclude with a warning: “Unless Europe reclaims control over its values, politics and global role, it risks being reduced to little more than a stage for America’s ongoing culture war.”
