Trump Is a Global ‘Wrecking Ball,’ European Security Experts Say

The organizers of the Munich Security Conference, Europe’s main defense-related forum, said in a report that President Trump is helping destroy the postwar international order.President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesFeb. 9, 2026Updated 12:14 p.m. ETThe security order that has bound together the West and much of the rest of the world since the end of World War II is under attack from President Trump and like-minded leaders, officials of the Munich Security Conference warned on Monday in remarkably blunt terms.The world has entered an era of “wrecking ball politics,” a team of conference staff wrote on Monday, in their 2026 Munich Security Report. The conference is a highly watched annual gathering of security officials from Europe, the U.S. and beyond, and was roiled last year by a castigating speech from Vice President JD Vance, who called on European leaders to cooperate with parties they have deemed extreme.This year’s conference, which opens on Friday, has taken on a more urgent tone amid growing concerns in Europe over Russian military aggression and Mr. Trump’s rapidly refashioned security strategy, including his ongoing efforts to pry Greenland from Denmark. The report summarizes those concerns, which have been repeatedly voiced by European officials in recent months, in terms that are more strident and detailed than many European leaders have typically dared to express.“Ironically, the president of the United States — the country that did more than any other to shape the post-1945 international order — is now the most prominent of the demolition men,” the authors wrote. “As a result, more than 80 years after construction began, the postwar international order is now under destruction.”“Under Donald Trump,” they said, “the United States has largely abandoned the role of the ‘leader of the free world.’”The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, rejected those characterizations on Monday. “I don’t see a world under destruction,” Mr. Whitaker said at an event held to mark the security report’s release, adding that the Trump administration is “not trying to dismantle NATO.”ImageThe U.S. ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, rejected the notion that President Trump is wrecking the international order. Credit...Mario Tama/Getty ImagesHe suggested Mr. Trump’s actions were simply meant to force Europe to be stronger. “When your kids are young they’re dependent on you,” he said, “but eventually you expect them to get a job, and so to me that’s where we are.”The report includes survey data showing growing and widespread disenchantment among residents of wealthy democracies, who have lost faith in the ability of traditional democratic institutions to solve problems and improve life for future generations.It calls Mr. Trump and similar leaders, like President Javier Milei of Argentina, the beneficiaries of those trends. And it details several ways in which Mr. Trump has broken from longstanding practices of the postwar era, including imposition of tariffs on longtime allies, volatile support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia and sharp cuts in aid to impoverished countries.“Perhaps most shockingly,” the authors wrote, “the U.S. under Trump has now disregarded some of the most basic norms of the post-1945 system: territorial integrity and the prohibition of the threat or use of force against other states.”In keeping with the prevailing mood among European leaders, the report warns that Mr. Trump and others’ new “demolition” policies may create a less safe and prosperous world, one “shaped by transactional deals rather than principled cooperation, private rather than public interests, and regions shaped by regional hegemons rather than universal norms.”Mr. Trump is not scheduled to appear at the conference. Neither is Mr. Vance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to address this year’s gathering on Saturday.Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.SKIP