What does J.D. Vance have against Europe?
A lot, apparently. There’s a clear through-line in the vice president’s contempt for Europe—from many of our individual allies to multinational organizations like the EU and NATO. That much was clear from his comments in the recent group text thread among senior administration officials that Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was (incredibly) included on.
On the thread, Cabinet and other top-level officials discussed plans to launch military attacks on the Iran-backed Houthi paramilitary group in Yemen, which had been disrupting commercial and military routes in the Red Sea. Vance expressed his disagreement that the strikes (which began on March 15) would benefit America instead of Europe.
“3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary,” Vance messaged the chat group. After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House National Security Adviser Michael Waltz made the case for having America use its power to clear the shipping lanes, Vance appeared to relent, but not without a kiss off: “if you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.” (Hegseth responded to Vance to assure him “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”)
In just a few leaked texts, we have a sharper understanding of just how Vance views Europe: an ungrateful and parasitic beneficiary of American largesse. It’s an outlook he’s revealed fairly consistently throughout his relatively brief political career, but rarely in such unguarded terms and in ways that put him at odds with President Donald Trump. And as an obvious frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president in 2028, Vance has a chance to continue reorienting American foreign policy toward an almost antagonistic relationship with Europe.
Criticism of Europe, particularly from the American right, is hardly a new phenomenon. There are countless areas where American interests are at odds with some of our largest European allies—their overreliance on Russian oil, for instance, or their opposition to American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. And there are legitimate debates to be had about some of the Trump-Vance bugaboos involving Europe, such as the need for other NATO member countries to spend more on national defense or limiting expansion of membership to NATO or the EU.
But needling our European allies has been one of Vance’s signature moves during his vice presidency, and he does so in ways that seem designed more to win plaudits from his base of support at home rather than achieve diplomatic ends in Europe.
His address at the Munich Security Conference in February upbraided leaders in Europe for their lack of commitment to free speech. He name-checked numerous laws across several European countries limiting speech they deemed hateful or offensive to certain people or groups. He reiterated the administration’s belief that Europe needs to “step up” and contribute more for its own security. And he criticized Romania for canceling its presidential election in December over concerns that Russian-backed propaganda was improperly skewing the outcome.
“But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with,” Vance said.
Earlier in February, Vance justified Trump’s declared interest in acquiring Greenland by dismissing Denmark as a poor steward of the North Atlantic island and a bad friend to America for not doing enough to restrict its sea lanes to foes like the Chinese. “Denmark, which controls Greenland, it’s not doing its job and it’s not being a good ally,” Vance told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “If that means we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us.”
And most famously, Vance was the instigator at the February 28 White House meeting with Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky in which the Ukrainian president sharply questioned the use of diplomacy to bring Russia’s Vladimir Putin to heel.
“You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance lectured Zelensky. “Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” Vance later berated Zelensky with a condescending question for a leader trying to save his country from annihilation: “Have you said ‘thank you’ once?”
There are plenty of examples from before Vance became vice president that demonstrate his glib disdain for Europe and questioning America’s interest in defending its allies. It’s part of what drew powerful allies like Tucker Carlson to back Vance in last year’s veepstakes. It also animates the next generation of foreign policy-minded Republicans, who see the liberal democratic establishment in Europe as a crumbling, godless society of elites. Helpfully for him, this scorn Vance has for Europe often aligns with Trump’s own zero-sum calculus on international relations.
But as the group text chat revealed, that’s not always the case, especially when Vance’s worldview comes into conflict with Trump’s desire to “send a message” to the Houthis through tough, limited action. In the end, clearing the shipping lanes and striking a blow to the Iranian backers of the Houthis appears to have outweighed their instinct to stick it to the Europeans. As the rest of the principals discussed how to proceed on Trump’s plan to attack the Houthis, Vance warned: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”
As far as his second term goes, Trump’s “message on Europe” has largely been shaped by Vance and his worldview: from Hegseth’s own speech in Europe last month telling NATO allies that the administration will “no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency” to the threats to tariff European imports. And despite this notable daylight between the president and the vice president over Yemen that mistakenly spilled out into the open, it’s likely to stay that way.
