Pete Hegseth criticised after comparing migration to D-Day invasion

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth came under fire for using a speech commemorating the Allied landings in Normandy to denounce migration to Europe, prompting accusations that he had trivialised the sacrifices of those who fought against Nazi Germany.

Speaking in Normandy, 82 years after Allied forces stormed the beaches of northern France to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe, Hegseth drew a parallel between the D-Day landings and modern migration across the Mediterranean.

“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said. “Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion, or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not.”

“The men who fought and died here restored freedom to Europe,” added Hegseth, a former Fox News host. “That freedom must be maintained by this generation of leaders and war fighters, or what they fought for was merely temporary.”

The remarks were met with condemnation from historians, academics and human rights advocates, who argued that equating migrants arriving in Europe with the military forces defeated during the Second World War was both historically illiterate and deeply disrespectful.

British historian, author and broadcaster Simon Schama described the speech as displaying “a special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance.”

“As if the little people’s rage against immigration somehow is superior to the war against the 3rd Reich and entitles this comic book nobody to lecture the actual heroes.”Schama added.

Israeli human rights lawyer Daniel Seidemann joined the criticism, calling Hegseth’s comments “an obscene desecration of the memories of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy, and especially of those who fell”.

Criticism also poured in from members of the public, some of whom described Hegseth as an embarrassment to the United States and questioned his suitability for high office.

The comments follow earlier controversial comments by US Vice President JD Vance, who blamed the death of the 18-year-old British student Henry Nowak, who was fatally stabbed last year in Southampton by Vickrum Digwa, on the “mass invasion of migrants” and said the “only response” was “righteous anger,” even though Nowak’s killer was also British.

Vance said Nowak “would still be alive today” if European leaders had resisted “the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it”.

The US State Department subsequently commented on the case, arguing that “two-tiered policing” in Western countries must be rejected.

Downing Street responded by criticising “people trying to interfere in our democracy” and noted that the Nowak family had explicitly stated they did not want their son’s death to be used “to create further division.”

The interventions by senior figures in the Trump administration have fuelled growing tensions with European governments, many of which view such rhetoric as an attempt to import America’s culture wars into domestic political debates across the continent.