LONDON — For the second time in a week, a top Trump administration official has publicly criticized Europe over migration levels, the latest in a series of attacks aimed at political leaders on the continent.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a speech marking the anniversary of D-Day in France on Saturday, commemorating 82 years since the 1944 push to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe, to lambast what he described as another “invasion” of Europe’s shores.“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said at the event in Normandy.“Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria.Boats and men arrive,” he said.
“When will European capitals do something about that invasion?”His comments came days after Vice President JD Vance incensed his British counterparts with public comments about the murder of the British student Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old white man who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer falsely alleged a racist attack.On Monday, the killer, a Sikh man, was sentenced to life in prison over the knife attack last December.“Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies,” Vance wrote on X.“He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”The case has led to violent protests, despite Nowak’s father, Mark Nowak, asking that his death “not be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused hard-right figures of exploiting the case to create “grievance and division.”While Starmer did not push back at Vance by name, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said Sunday that he had spoken to Vance to express ...