Trump lambasts 'decaying' Europe

Donald Trump has hinted he could walk away from supporting Ukraine as he doubled down on his administration's recent criticism of Europe, describing it as "weak" and "decaying" and claiming it is "destroying itself" through immigration.

- Peter Beaumont

In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview with Politico, a transcript of which was released yesterday, the US president struggled to name any Ukrainian cities other than Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the "great replacement" conspiracy theory.

Trump called for Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to accept his proposal to cede territory to Russia, arguing that Moscow retained the "upper hand" and that Zelenskyy's government must "play ball".

Trump's envoys have given Zelenskyy days to respond to a proposed peace deal, under which Ukraine would be forced to accept territorial losses in return for unspecified US security guarantees, according to the Financial Times, which said the US leader was hoping for a deal “by Christmas”.

In his often halting remarks, Trump swerved from subject to subject while rehearsing familiar grudges and conspiracies. He also declined repeatedly to rule out sending American troops into Venezuela as part of his effort to bring down the president, Nicolás Maduro.

“I don’t want to rule in or out. I don’t talk about it,” Trump said, adding he did not want to talk about military strategy.

The US president repeatedly described what he said were Europe’s problems in entirely racial terms, calling some unnamed European leaders “real stupid”.