I expected the EU to push back strongly against Donald Trump’s new national security strategy. Not only does it show contempt for the EU and its “weak” leaders, but it also targets European citizens and migrants with racist dog whistles and barely disguised Islamophobia. Yet instead of a rousing defence of the bloc’s commitment to human rights and equality, there have just been bland platitudes.

António Costa, the president of the European Council, denounced Trump’s plans to boost support for Europe’s far-right parties. But there was no public challenge to the racist logic underpinning his argument. Costa, who has spoken proudly of his mixed ancestry, could have made a convincing counterargument to the US president’s false premise that Europe was heading for “civilisational erasure” because of migrants and, by extension, millions of Europeans of colour.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, insisted that the best response to the Trump administration’s insults was standing up for a united Europe, focusing on its strengths and taking pride in the EU. There was no reaffirmation of the compelling vision she outlined only two years ago of an inclusive EU “where it doesn’t matter what you look like, who you love, how you pray, and where you are born”.

The truth is that Trump’s alternative reality about a “woke” Europe is laughable. He would feel quite at home in today’s EU. Far-right parties are on the rise, and the rhetoric of “defending civilisation” – part of the “great replacement” conspiracy discourse – has seeped from the far-right fringes into the political mainstream. Von der Leyen’s own conservative bloc increasingly relies on far-right votes to move legislation through the European parliament. If Trump were to visit “Brussels so white”’s institutions, the US president would likely not run into many people of colour.

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