US defence secretary Pete Hegseth used a D-Day anniversary speech on Saturday to appear to link immigration by sea to the wartime liberation of Europe, warning that the freedom won by Allied troops could prove temporary if leaders failed to defend it.
Mr Hegseth, speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in north-western France during commemorations for the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6 1944, 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.”
Mr 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.
He was speaking after Prime Minister Sir 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 Mr Nowak and his killer were British.
In December, the Trump administration’s national security strategy warned that Europe faced the “prospect of civilisational erasure” and could become “unrecognisable” within 20 years.
