Why do Trump and Putin sound so similar when talking about Europe's decline?
US propaganda is designed to make people politically passive, according to a researcher. "This is an effect that benefits authoritarian forces."
Both the United States and Russia are attempting to construct a narrative of European decline, according to a researcher. This photo is from August 2025, when Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump met in Alaska.(Photo: Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP / NTB)
The United States' rhetorical attacks on Europe have been severe since Donald Trump came to power. Last year, Vice President JD Vance strongly criticised European politicians, accusing them of being undemocratic. Most recently, in January this year, Donald Trump sharply criticised Europe during the Davos summit.
He said he loved Europe and wanted it to succeed, but claimed it was moving in the wrong direction.
Echoes of historical narratives
"It's horrible what they're doing to themselves. They're destroying themselves," he said about Europe.
How should this portrayal of Europe be understood from a Norwegian perspective? Russia researcher Johanne Kalsaas believes the portrayal resembles a narrative that another country has also tried to tell about Europe: the story that Russia and President Vladimir Putin have worked to spread for years.
"Both regimes are fighting to promote as monotonous a narrative about the world as possible," Kaalsas tells Science Norway.
And the narrative is that Europe is in decline.
Warning of moral collapse
The decline is happening because of a collective moral and democratic collapse, according to Trump and Putin.
"Europe is, in their view, in the process of destroying itself through cultural diversity, among other things because we accept LGBT+ people," says Kalsaas.
Trump also claims that Europe’s decline is driven by mass migration and its investment in green energy.
The illusion of the open society
Kalsaas researches Russian propaganda and the narratives and perceptions of reality it aims to spread.
She notes that propaganda today looks a bit different from how it did just a few decades ago.
During World War II, for example, a key tool was the use of clear and grotesque enemy images.
"Whether the enemies were Jews, communists, Nazis, or Islamists, they were portrayed in a way that provoked strong emotions, dehumanised them, and thereby justified the use of violence against them," says Kalsaas.
The goal was to strengthen support for those in power or to weaken resistance to them.
Annonse
The new form of propaganda is no longer meant to scare us with frightening images of enemies. On the contrary, it can make us feel really good, according to Johanne Kalsaas.(Photo: Thor Brødreskift / University of Bergen)
"Trump is good at it"
Although the goal is still the same, it has become increasingly difficult for power elites to get this message across to their populations today, according to Kalsaas.
It's the internet and social media that make this harder. As a result, propaganda has taken on a new form.
"It's now increasingly about capturing our attention in an endless stream of content," says Kalsaas. This pursuit blurs the line between information and entertainment.
And this is where Trump excels, according to Kalsaas.
The flag on Greenland
One example is the AI-generated image of Trump planting a flag on Greenland, which he shared it himself on the social media platform Truth Social.
"Consciously or unconsciously, he's playing into a humour culture with increasingly ridiculous memes. Greenland's sovereignty is reduced from a serious issue of international law and NATO's continued existence into a massive joke," the researcher says.
Paul Buvarp, a researcher at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, has researched information influence, disinformation, and propaganda. He has previously told Science Norway that Trump's goal lies in the unrest itself, not necessarily in the content.
"It's hard to say whether the goal is to split Europe directly. But these kinds of statements fit neatly into a narrative Trump – and parts of American politics – have already promoted: That Europe is fragmented, weak, and incapable of taking responsibility for its own security," Buvarp told Science Norway.
The New Yorker has previously written about the so-called meme-ification of politics, in which our opinions are increasingly shaped by funny videos or images shared on social media.
What's new under Trump is that the propaganda seems tailor-made for this.
"Shock value, spectacle, and the sensation of following a completely absurd TV series that surpasses our wildest imaginations," says Johanne Kalsaas.
Everything has the potential to go viral.
The goal is to distract us
This new propaganda no longer needs to scare us with grotesque enemy images. Instead, it can make us feel really good, the researcher notes.
"Such propaganda is not intended to make us think politically, but to distract us," says Kalsaas. "We know this is a key strategy, especially on the Russian side: By flooding the internet with meaningless content, the population becomes depoliticised. And a politically passive population is obviously much easier to control."
Kalsaas does not want to speculate about the intentions behind what Trump says and does. Propaganda does not always have a clearly defined goal either.
"But it's important to pay attention to the sense of unreality and unpredictability that follows in the wake of Trump's statements," she says. "I think many feel an enormous sense of discouragement and powerlessness. People are beginning to doubt whether there are any rules left for the international community."
And this benefits authoritarian forces, according to Kalsaas.
