US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a speech marking the anniversary of D-Day on Saturday to draw a parallel between Europe’s wartime liberation and modern migration challenges, warning that the freedom secured by Allied forces could be lost if leaders fail to protect it.
Hegseth, speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northwestern France during commemorations for the 82nd anniversary of the 6 June, 1944, landings, said that today, “different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies.”
“Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive,” he said.
“When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?” he added. “I pray not, and I believe not.”
Hegseth did not use the word immigration, but his remarks echoed broader Trump administration criticism of Europe over migration, borders and what US officials have described as censorship of nationalist and far-right voices.
On Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office condemned US Vice President JD Vance for blaming immigration for the killing of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student stabbed to death in Southampton, even though both Nowak and his killer were British.
In December, the Trump administration’s national security strategy warned that Europe faced the “prospect of civilizational erasure” and could become “unrecognisable” within 20 years.
