Trump calls Europe ‘decaying’ and suggests ‘size will win’ in Ukraine war

President Donald Trump walks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine at the White House in Washington, on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. Trump said in an interview published on Dec. 9 that Europe was weak and its nations were “decaying,” days after his administration issued a strategy paper that indicated that the United States should no longer guarantee the continent’s security. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

By AMELIA NIERENBERG

President Donald Trump said in an interview published Tuesday that Europe was weak and its nations were “decaying,” days after the Trump administration issued a strategy paper that indicated that the United States should no longer guarantee the continent’s security.

The president’s comments, made in a wide-ranging interview with Politico, widened a dispute between Trump and his European counterparts over Europe’s future and how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump said that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, who has rejected parts of a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire, would have to “get on the ball” and start “accepting things.” Zelenskyy’s army is losing the war, Trump said, suggesting that it was time for him to compromise in the ceasefire talks.

Trump’s interview was published a day after the leaders of Britain, France and Germany met with Zelenskyy in London to show their support for Ukraine and discuss alternative ceasefire plans. Zelenskyy reiterated after that meeting that Ukraine would not budge from its long-standing opposition to handing over land to Russia, a requirement of Trump’s proposed peace plan.

Trump also accused Zelenskyy of not having read a new draft of the U.S. peace plan. “It would be nice if he would read it,” Trump said. “You know, a lot of people are dying. So it would be really good if he’d read it.”

Several elements of the U.S. peace plan — which was published last month — echoed demands made by the Kremlin, prompting alarm across Europe.

Trump suggested that a Russian victory would be inevitable, in part because the country is much larger than Ukraine.

Russia, he said, has the “upper hand. And they always did. They’re much bigger. They’re much stronger,” Trump said. Even though he said he gave Ukraine a lot of credit for bravery, “At some point, size will win.”

Trump called for elections in Ukraine, accusing the country’s leadership of “using war not to hold an election.”

“They talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” he said.

Trump also would not rule out a U.S. ground invasion of Venezuela, which he has repeatedly threatened with military action inside the country and accused of sending drugs and criminals to the United States. As for President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, whom the Trump administration has labeled the head of a terrorist organization: “His days are numbered,” Trump said, according to the interview transcript.

Later, Trump said he had watched footage of the Sept. 2 military strike on a boat in the Caribbean that killed survivors of a previous attack on the boat, which the administration has said was involved in drug trafficking. “It’s not pretty,” Trump said. Lawmakers in Congress have been debating whether the second strike was a war crime.

“Nobody wants to drive boats to America loaded up with drugs anymore,” Trump said. “And we’re gonna hit ’em on land very soon, too.”