Speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, on June 6, 2026, to mark the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the commemoration to describe migrant arrivals on Europe's southern coasts as a new “invasion” of its beaches.
“Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different, dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said, according to The Guardian's transcription. “Beaches in Spain, Italy, 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.” He added that the freedom the fallen soldiers restored “must be maintained by this generation of leaders and war fighters, or what they fought for was merely temporary.” The speech did not use the word immigration, the AP noted, but it echoed the administration's repeated criticism of European migration policy, and it came days after Vice President JD Vance blamed “the mass invasion of migrants” for the killing of a British teenager.
The remarks drew sharp criticism on social media. The historian Simon Schama called them a “special kind of loathsomeness: a blend of historical deafness, grotesque stupidity and comically ludicrous self-importance,” and objected that they entitled “this comic book nobody to lecture the actual heroes.” Israeli human-rights lawyer Daniel Seidemann wrote, “This is an obscene desecration of the memories of those who stormed the beaches of Normandy, and especially of those who fell.” Swedish economist Anders Åslund noted the contradiction with Hegseth's claim that the U.S. stands by its allies: “No you don't. You just attacked them.”
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said Hegseth likened migration to the Nazi invasion the Allies fought. He used the word “invasion” for migrant arrivals at a D-Day commemoration but did not mention the Nazis or use the word immigration; the entry now quotes what he said without that characterization.