British historian Simon Schama has condemned U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over his D-Day address while deriding the “little people” who oppose mass migration into Europe.
Marking the 82nd anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy in a speech delivered at the American military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Secretary Hegseth painted a contrast between the “Greatest Generation” which overcame the evils of Nazi Germany, and the modern West, which he warned has, at least in part, become “comfortable” and under the misaprehension that “empty slogans” and “lavish summits” will preserve peace and stability in Europe.
Following the example of other senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Hegseth took the opportunity of his trip to the old continent to warn its leaders of the perils looming from the mass migration policies imposed on their citizens by politicians.
“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said. On the “beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men arrive,” he said. “When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?”
The comments from the Secretary, as with other critiques of Europe’s adherence to open borders ideology from the Trump government, sparked a wave of — at least feigned — outrage from the globalist left commentariat across the pond. Among them was popular British historian Sir Simon Schama, who has long advocated for the importation of millions of foreigners, often citing his own Jewish family’s experiences in diaspora as foundational to his thinking.
Responding on social media to Hegseth’s speech, the Citizens author said: “This is a special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness , grotesque stupidity, and comically ludicrous self- importance.”
Echoing the infamous “deplorables” comment from failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Schama added: “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.”
Sir Simon has long been critical of anti-migration sentiment, which he has attributed to a “hatred of immigrants“, while largely dismissing the concerns over cultural cohesion and migrant associated crime.
He described Brexit as an “unnecessary act of self-harm” that was driven by “detestation” of foreigners, while lauding cosmopolitan London for being more immigrant-friendly than the rest of the country.
Overlooking the downward pressure on the wages of the working class or the billions handed out by the government to migrants every year from the pockets of British taxpayers, Schama has boasted that his life had been personally improved by mass migration, saying last year that it is “such a pleasure that there’s a Persian cafe around the corner from my flat in London.”
The historian has also been a leading critic of President Donald Trump in Britain, claiming that his victory in the 2016 presidential elections would “hearten fascists all over the world,” while noting that “democracy often brings fascists to power,” as was the case with Adolph Hitler’s Nazi Party.
While Schama has shied away from direct comparisons between Trump and Hitler, he has accused the U.S. President of being an “entertainment fascist”, which he said “may be less sinister but is actually in the end more dangerous”.
The support for mass migration by European elites, who suffer little of the downside and have much to gain from the artificial inflation of their property values and the deflationary pressure on their workers’ wages, was criticised this week by Vice President JD Vance.
Linking the influx of millions of people from radically disparate backgrounds to the death of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, who died last year while in police handcuffs after officers refused to believe he was stabbed by a Sikh man with a traditional knife, Vance said: “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.”
This sparked backlash in London from the left-wing Labour government, with both Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy PM David Lammy accusing Vance of interfering in Britain’s internal affairs, despite both men having previously railed against the American police system in the wake of the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the future PM having “taken the knee” in a public demonstration of support for the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement.