“We seek no treasure, we seek no territorial gains, we seek only the right of man to be free; we seek his right to worship his God, to lead his life in his own way, secure from persecution.  As the humble laborer returns from his work when the day is done, and sees the smoke curling upwards from his cottage home in the serene evening sky, we wish him to know that no rat-a-tat-tat of the secret police upon his door will disturb his leisure or interrupt his rest.”

—Prime Minister Winston Churchill, explaining Great Britain’s war aims to FDR’s close adviser Harry Hopkins, January 11, 1941, at “Ditchley” in England, as quoted in Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile (New York: Crown, 2020) p. 351

“What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values — values shared with the United States of America. ... If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.”

—Vice President J.D. Vance, speech at the Munich Security Conference, February 14, 2025

Almost 85 years later, Churchill’s vision of Europe’s post-war future has unraveled.  J.D. Vance held the mirror up to shocked Europeans in Munich last February, allowing them to see what they have become: elitest tyrants who censor and imprison dissenters and cancel elections when they lose.  And if they thought the vice president’s admonition was a one-off, President Trump’s ambassador to France published a letter to President Macron that took France to task for, in effect, acting more like the Vichy regime than the Free French Republic.  President Trump just added an exclamation point onto those sentiments before the United Nations General Assembly.

Europe must come to terms with the poor choices it has made.  It has abandoned its Western heritage and opened its gates to millions of aliens for whom the Ten Commandments hold no sway.  For England, the situation seems most bitter as the new ruling class turns its back on the tradition of freedom, individual rights, and equality under the law that traces back to the field at Runnymede in 1215, where the barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta.

President Trump is wisely making the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific Ocean the strategic priority for the defense of the homeland.  After decades of allowing the world to hollow out our industrial base as America underwrote the defense of what we used to call the Free World, the United States was fast approaching a collapse from what Professor Paul Kennedy called strategic overextension and imperial overstretch (see Rise and Fall of the Great Powers [New York: Random House, 1987], p. 515).  The time has come for the United States to follow the airline safety instruction to put your mask on first before assisting others.  That is what President Trump is doing.

To secure the homeland, the southern border was locked down quickly, starting in January.  To paraphrase President Trump, we did not need a new law to stop the illegal entry of millions of aliens into the United States; we only needed to enforce, instead of flout, the laws we already have.  A massive program to deport the more than 10 million aliens illegally allowed into the country by Joe Biden — including criminals, terrorists, and possibly large numbers of military-aged men from Communist China — scales up each week. 

Relations with Panama were strengthened by early visits from secretary of State Rubio and secretary of War Hegseth.  Panama has terminated contracts with the Hong Kong company Hutchison Whampoa for the management of the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal.  This removes a Chinese Communist Party threat to the free movement of commerce and the U.S. Navy through the canal.

The Chinese Communist Party and the narco-terrorist regime in Venezuela are on notice that the United States will not tolerate the continuation of their narcotics war on the American people.

The people of Greenland are at least thinking about a closer relationship with the United States.  Do not underestimate President Trump’s ability to develop a new arrangement that can get the support of Greenland and Denmark.  Greenland is geographically much closer to North America than to Denmark.  Closer military ties with Greenland (with more air, space, and naval infrastructure), combined with a growing U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker force, would help to deny the Arctic as a route for hostile states to threaten North America.

China’s purchase of farmland throughout the United States, often near military installations, is a threat to our food security and military operations.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture is leading the National Farm Security Action Plan, a whole-of-government approach involving the Departments of Agriculture, War, Interior, Justice, and Homeland Security.   Its seven lines of effort will protect our food supply and military installations from terrorists and hostile foreign states.

China is the primary external threat to the survival of the United States.  Securing the Western hemisphere, strengthening our alliances and defense posture in the Pacific, and rapidly expanding and modernizing our industrial base are critical.  Leapfrog advances in technology and fast, high-volume manufacturing will be part of this.

But Vice President Vance’s warning to Europe is relevant to the United States as well.  We also face the threat from within.  America confronts a growing Marxist insurgency, which used street terror as part of its toolbox to overcome the will of the American people and steal the 2020 election.  President Trump is responding forcefully to defend our freedom using his Article II executive power.  Americans must be resolute in supporting the president.

We are in the long twilight struggle.  In the near term, we cannot expect help from the institutions of Europe.  Even the very public Christian martyrdom of September 10 brings a scandalous silence from the Holy See.  Charlie Kirk, pray for us!

Peter Knickerbocker served in the first Trump administration at the Department of Defense.

Image: Darkmoon_Art via Pixabay, Pixabay License.