Vice President J.D. Vance took his culture war to Europe on Friday, warning that its greatest threat came not from China or Russia but from within as he delivered a blistering attack on what he said was the continent’s retreat from its traditional values.
Vance said free speech and democratic institutions were being eroded in an address to the Munich Security Conference.
He accused European politicians of forcing people to shut down social media accounts and urged leaders to do more to stem illegal immigration.
Vance reserved particular scorn for America’s closest ally, and the case of a British man arrested after praying near an abortion clinic.
‘Europe faces many challenges, but the crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making,’ he said.
‘If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump.’
If his audience of European VIPs had expected Vance to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine, outlining Donald Trump’s peace plan, they were in for a shock.
Some shifted in their seats as he attacked European politicians head on.
Vice President J.D. Vance took European leaders to task in their own back yard with an fiery speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday afternoon
Vance’s audience of European VIPs were lectured on democracy and freedom of speech
He accused European Union officials of ‘canceling elections and asked whether ‘we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately higher standard’.
‘There is a new sheriff in town,’ he said referring to President Donald Trump. ‘We may disagree with your views but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square.’
The hall was packed to hear Vance speak. Audience members sat on the stairs or stood three deep in the aisles, sending temperature soaring even before Vance turned up the heat.
He cited the example of a British man, Adam Smith-Connor, who was arrested after he refused to leave a safe zone around an abortion clinic designed to protect vulnerable women.
Vance claimed it was an attack on the ‘basic liberties of religious Britons’ that ‘criminalizes prayer.’
‘British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for,’ said Vance.
‘Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son that his former girlfriend had aborted years before.’
He accused European leaders of echoing communist language by acting against ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation.’
And he hammered Trump’s longstanding demand that European nations spend more on their own defense.
The hall was packed, raising the temperature even before Vance launched his blistering attack
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Vance is expected to meet him later Friday
‘While the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it’s important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way,’ he said.
‘The biggest threat to Europe isn’t external—it’s internal. A retreat from its own fundamental values, values shared with the U.S.’
He delivered his speech at a moment of world peril, as the established world order is in danger of crumbling under Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
Vance is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky later Friday, at the end of his five-day trip to Europe. Their meeting was delayed because Secretary of State Marco Rubio‘s plane had to return to Washington after a mechanical problem en route to the conference.
Trump is pushing for an end to the conflict and is putting pressure on both sides to find a settlement.
Trump upended years of support for Ukraine with a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, kickstarting talks between Moscow and Washington.
His defense secretary Pete Hegseth said Ukraine would not be able to keep its pre-2014 borders and would not be admitted to NATO, comments which he quickly had to walk back.
The comments angered European leaders who quickly pushed back, reiterating that Ukraine was on a path to NATO membership and insisting that Ukraine must be part of any talks.
United States Vice-President JD Vance, rear right, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, rear left, meet during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Friday
‘The Ukraine war has to end,’ Trump told reporters Thursday. ‘Young people are being killed at levels that nobody’s seen since World War II. And it’s a ridiculous war.’
Trump is unconcerned with accusations that he is selling out Ukraine, and instead paints his proposals as the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that is needed after three years of war.
Vance himself appeared to go further than Trump in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that military action could be used to pressure Putin.
‘There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage’ the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance told the newspaper.
On Friday morning he hammered the message that European nations should spend more on defense.
‘NATO is a very important military alliance, of course, that we’re the most significant part of,’ he said ahead of a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
‘But we want to make sure that NATO is actually built for the future, and we think a big part of that is ensuring that NATO does a little bit more burden sharing in Europe, so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia.’
