Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a D-Day speech in France on Saturday to criticize Europe over its migration policies, saying that “dangerous ideologies” were storming the continent’s shores, in what he compared to an “invasion.”
On the 82nd anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history, Mr. Hegseth made the speech at the Normandy American Cemetery before nearly 9,400 graves of American soldiers, most of whom died in the assault on June 6, 1944, and the operations that followed. The anniversary is usually regarded as a time to commemorate unity among Allied countries that fought against Nazi Germany.
In his remarks, Mr. Hegseth said that “freedom is not free” and especially praised the role played by American troops, but said that over the past eight or so decades, some European countries had grown “comfortable.”
“Today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” he said. “Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?”
The comments appear to reflect the United States’ recently updated national security strategy around the world, which warned that Europe was on a path to becoming “unrecognizable” because of migration policies that it said were undermining the national identities of European countries. The document provoked sharp retorts from across Europe.
Many of the Trump administration’s assertions on immigrants in Europe overlap with the language of far-right political parties in European countries, which have seen an increase in support since a migration crisis that peaked between 2014 and 2016. The European Union’s border agency, Frontex, reported that unauthorized border crossings dropped by a quarter in 2025, continuing a yearslong trend.
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance also criticized European migration policies, when he commented on the 2025 killing in England of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old who had been handcuffed by police as he lay dying after being stabbed by a man, who was Sikh.
In a post on social media, Mr. Vance blamed Mr. Nowak’s death on “European elites” and “the mass invasion of migrants.” Britain’s government condemned Mr. Vance’s comments, according to the BBC, saying that the vice president was interfering in its democracy and seeking to create further division.
In Mr. Hegseth’s speech on Saturday, he praised American veterans of the D-Day invasion, only a few of whom survive today.
“We owe you a debt of gratitude we can never repay,” he said.
Mr. Hegseth’s speech, his second on this anniversary as defense secretary, also comes against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, which started with Russia’s invasion in 2022. He did not mention that war in his speech.
Claire Moses is a Times reporter in London, focused on coverage of breaking and trending news.
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