ANKARA 

The Trump administration is waging a culture war on Europe by promoting right-wing allies and undermining the EU’s credibility, according to a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the European Cultural Foundation.

The report concludes that US President Donald Trump and his allies are actively trying to interfere in European elections, shift the continent’s ideological center to the right, and frame transatlantic relations as a divide over values.

It warns that Trump’s strategy plays out on two levels: visible disputes over migration, climate, and free speech, and subtler efforts to erode Europe’s dignity and autonomy.

“In Trump’s culture war, Europe itself is the target,” said Pawel Zerka of the ECFR, citing Trump’s exclusion of EU leaders from Ukraine talks, attacks on mainstream parties and pressure in trade negotiations. The report also highlights Washington’s embrace of nationalist figures such as Poland’s Karol Nawrocki as evidence of US attempts to tilt Europe’s politics.

Despite these challenges, polling across all 27 EU states shows strong pro-European sentiment and rising expectations that the bloc should protect citizens from global crises. The study urges EU governments and institutions to reclaim contested values like sovereignty and patriotism, invest in defense and technology, and present a confident narrative of independence.

Failure to act, the report warns, could deepen polarization and leave Europe cast as a supporting actor in America’s “ideological drama.”