Pete Hegseth gave an entire anti-immigration speech and asked Europe to ‘do something about that invasion’ on D-Day anniversary

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attended the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings on Saturday, June 6, and delivered a controversial speech that drew a comparison between the 1944 Allied invasion and the arrival of migrants on Europe’s shores.

Per a report by the Associated Press, Hegseth spoke at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northwestern France, and told the audience that the continent now faces a different kind of threat.

“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” the DefSec said. He went on to name specific countries. “Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive.” He then asked, “When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not.”

Hegseth also brought up the matter of military strength, pressing for stronger transatlantic defense cooperation, but the keynote tracked the Trump administration’s larger immigration and border security policies.

“In the years since these beaches, much of the West, in some places, in some quarters, and in some capitals, grew comfortable, we forgot that freedom is not free,” he said, framing the warning around the idea that Western complacency had set in over the decades since D-Day.

Hegseth’s remarks drew opposition in Normandy

Hegseth’s presence in France was contested before he even arrived. France 24 reported that after delivering his speech, Hegseth skipped the afternoon’s main international ceremony held in the nearby village of Langrune-sur-Mer, because some residents there said the U.S. official was not welcome.

“He has very warlike views and it seems to us that this man does not share our democratic values,” Sylvie Lamy Thepaut, a member of the local association Langrune en Commun, told French broadcaster BFM TV, in comments relayed by France 24.

The Connexion reported that the same association had published a statement on June 2 calling for the visit’s cancellation, arguing that Hegseth “promotes values that go against democracy, human rights, and peace.”

The wider pattern of the Trump administration’s commentary on Europe

The address fits a broader line of Trump administration commentary on Europe. In September 2025, Donald Trump told the United Nations (per Euronews) that European “countries are being ruined” by migration. “If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before, that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail,” he said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and JD Vance recently came into each other’s crosshairs over the death of Henry Nowak. The Vice President had blamed Nowak’s death on “the last few generations of European elites” not standing up to “the mass invasion of migrants,” to which Starmer’s office responded by warning against people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.” (via The Guardian)