Vance’s message is simple: drink the Maga Kool-Aid or you’re on your own
14 February 2025 7:51pm GMT
JD Vance doesn’t just expect the UK and Europe to swallow Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine. He wants them to drink the Maga Kool-Aid.
The generals and politicians at the Munich Security Conference were left astonished by the US vice-president’s speech, which was short on security but very long on ideology.
Russia, the war in Ukraine, and even defence spending merited only a passing mention.
Instead, Mr Vance took aim at Europe and the UK, firing a broadside over immigration, establishment elites and perceived backsliding on free speech.
According to the vice-president, the real threat to Europe is not Vladimir Putin but largely Muslim asylum seekers.
Mr Vance attacked the EU as elite “commissars” ignoring the populist call for stronger borders, which he said was shown by Brexit.
“Perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs,” he said.
Mr Vance went on to criticise the UK for its policy of safe zones around abortion clinics; claiming that laws to prevent protestors praying in them amounted to thought crime.
“In Britain, and across Europe, free speech I fear is in retreat,” he said, before making clear that “new sheriff in town” Donald Trump would fight for it.