A new U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) has accused Europe of economic, political and cultural deterioration, sending shockwaves through Brussels but delighting the continent's populist parties.

The controversial strategy, signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, warns that Europe is on the brink of 'civilisational erasure' due to decades of decline, and condemns its practice of 'censorship' and 'mass migration' that will render the continent 'unrecognisable in 20 years or less'.

The report crystalises in stark terms the growing facture between the EU and its most important ally, the United States, threatening to torpedo a relationship that has defined global politics since the Second World War.

It comes as a furious Elon Musk called for the EU to be 'abolished' and for 'sovereignty returned to individual countries' after his social media company X was fined 120 million euros (£105 million) by tech regulators for breaching online content rules.

While the Kremlin showered praise on the 33-page NSS report, calling it 'largely consistent' with Moscow's vision, EU officials blasted the U.S. for turning its back on Europe.

'For the first time since the end of the Second World War, the USA is no longer standing by the Europeans,' said Norbert Röttgen, a member of the German Bundestag.

'If this strategy were to succeed, the EU would no longer exist,' he told the Editorial Network Germany.

'What we cannot accept is the threat to interfere in European politics,' European Council President António Costa told a conference in Brussels.

'The United States cannot replace Europe in what its vision is of freedom of expression,' he said.

In contrast, Dutch politician Geert Wilders, the head of the hard-right Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, welcomed the contentious report: 'President @realDonaldTrump @POTUS speaks the truth,' he wrote on X.

'Europe is changing rapidly into a medieval continent thanks to open borders and mass immigration.

'Indeed, an erasure of our culture if we don’t act soon and close our borders for illegal aliens!'

In a move that infuriated Europe, the NSS did not cast Moscow as a security threat to the U.S., and the EU was blamed for blocking America's efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.

In an outcome no-doubt favourable to Vladimir Putin, the report has stoked fiery divisions within the continent, with centrist politicians blasting the strategy while populist parties rush to defend it.

Reacting to the security document, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said Europe did 'not need outside advice', while former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt wrote that the report 'places itself to the right of the extreme right'.

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Wadephul said that the U.S. was still Germany’s most important ally in NATO but that 'questions like freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and how we organise our liberal society here in the Federal Republic of Germany are not part of that'.

In a stark warning, Röttgen, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, said the White House was 'no longer standing by Ukraine, a country against which a brutal war of annihilation is being waged in violation of international law'.

He also accused Trump of cooperating with 'the internal enemies of liberal democracy in Europe', citing the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany.

'This strategy continues to talk about Europe as an ally,' Costa said. 'That's fine, but if we are allies, we must act as allies.'

'The United States remains an important ally, the United States remains an important economic partner, but Europe must be sovereign,' he continued.

In contrast, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, one of Trump’s top supporters in Europe, criticised the EU's support for Ukraine while praising the American and Russian presidents’ negotiations to end the war.

'Those who have power, act; those who don’t only speak,' Orban told Kossuth Radio.

'This is why strong players like Russia and the United States negotiate and make deals, while weak Europe is left out of shaping its own future and chooses to talk instead.'

Alongside a post celebrating the security report, Wilders shared a video of himself describing mass immigration as 'rapidly changing our culture and identity, and not for the better, but for the worse'.

'We consider this a positive step,' Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday, responding to the report which calls for cooperation with Moscow, rather than describing Russia as a direct threat.

The NSS is a document released periodically by the executive branch that outlines a president's vision for the nation, including priorities, threats and strategies to deal with those.

Released Friday without notification, it included a foreword signed by Trump, who described the document as 'a roadmap to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history'.

The strategy calls for an 'expeditious cessation of hostilities' in Ukraine in order to 'reestablish strategic stability with Russia' and 'stabilise European economies'.

It condemns European officials for having 'unrealistic expectations' for the war and said many trampled on basic principles of democracy to suppress domestic opposition.

'A large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments' subversion of democratic processes,' it said.

The report called for a restoration 'Western identity', demanding that U.S. policy should prioritise 'resistance to Europe's current trajectory within European nations'.

It accused the EU of undermining political liberty and sovereignty, censoring free speech, and pursuing migration policies that were 'transforming the continent'.

If present trends continued, Europe would be 'unrecognisable' in 20 years or less and it was 'far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies,' it said.

The strategy warns that certain NATO nations may become 'majority non-European' because of immigration, raising the question as to 'whether they will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter'.

Economic decline in Europe is 'eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure', it warned.

In stark contrast, the strategy praised the influence of 'patriotic European parties' and said 'America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit'.

The U.S. administration has cultivated ties with the anti-immigration AfD party in Germany, including a visit by a senior AfD lawmaker to the White House in September.

Trump recently heaped praise on Hungary's autocratic leader Orbán, calling him a 'great leader'.

During his 14 years of power, Orbán has transformed Hungary into what the European Parliament has denounced as a 'hybrid regime of electoral autocracy'.

Following the news that tech billionare Musk would be fined £105 million in the first sanction under a new landmark legislation, JD Vance told the EU it 'should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage'.

Musk replied 'Bull****' under a European Commission post on X about the fine, and wrote: 'Freedom of speech is the bedrock democracy. The only way to know what you are voting for.'

'The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on @X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,' said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

'The days of censoring Americans online are over,' he wrote.

Europe’s hard-right firebrands rushed to defend Musk and accused Brussels of violating free speech over the fine.

'The Commission’s attack on X says it all,' Hungary's Orbán said on X. 'When the Brusselian overlords cannot win the debate, they reach for the fines. Europe needs free speech, not unelected bureaucrats deciding what we can read or say.'

'The European Commission appreciates censorship and chat control of its citizens. They want to silence critical voices by restricting freedom of speech,' echoed AfD leader Alice Weidel.

Europe's crackdown on Big Tech to ensure smaller rivals can compete and consumers have more choice has been criticised by the U.S. administration, which says it singles out American companies and censors Americans.

The EU sanction against X followed a two-year-long under the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content.

EU regulators said X's DSA violations included €45m for introducing a 'verification' blue checkmark that users could buy, leaving others unable to determine the authenticity of account holders; €35m for breaches of ad regulations; and €40m for its failure to provide researchers access to public data.

The Commission said the investigation into the dissemination of illegal content on X and measures taken to combat information manipulation and a separate probe into TikTok's design, algorithmic systems and obligation to protect children continue.

The contentious NSS report echoes Trump's previous comments at the UN when he said European countries were 'going to hell' because of unchecked immigration.

In a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, he said: 'You’re destroying your countries. They’re being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble.

'They’ve been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody’s ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe.'

It also recalled some of the language used in a speech by Vice President JD Vance in Munich in February, where he said the greatest threat facing the continent was not from Russia and China, but 'from within'.

In a social media post addressed to his 'American friends', Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said wrote: 'Europe is your closest ally, not your problem' and noted their 'common enemies'.

'At least that’s how it has been in the last 80 years. We need to stick to this, this is the only reasonable strategy of our common security. Unless something has changed,' he said.

But as the NSS clearly outlines, 'The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over'.

Far from being a foreign policy U-turn, the security document crystalises Trump’s longstanding 'America First' doctrine, sparking fear across European nations which still heavily rely on U.S. military support.