JD Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference yesterday was a deliberate insult to Europe. It did the opposite of what you might have supposed and left Europeans feeling less secure. It was the latest sign that the United States isn’t going to defend us if push ever comes to shove. He accused European countries, naming Britain specifically, of suppressing free speech and failing to properly control immigration. The US Vice President said the continent's greatest threat was not from Russia and China, but "from within." And by that, he meant the elected governments, most of which are not far-right. Considering what’s happening now in America, it was very rich indeed.
Vance's words came from a parallel world. No hint of criticism of Russia or the suppression of free speech there, presumably because the speech and the opposition being silenced in Putin’s Russia are liberals and left-wing social democrats. People have been arrested and thrown in prison for holding up blank sheets of paper in Moscow, but not a whisper about that, or Russia's blatant interference in elections in Europe.
Instead, Vance brought up the obscure case of a man jailed in the UK for protesting outside an abortion clinic. It turns out he, like Tommy Robinson, was detained for breaking a court order.
The German defence minister described the speech bluntly as "unacceptable." Boris Pistorius directly challenged Vance's claim that democracy itself was being "called into question by the US vice-president for the whole of Europe."
"He speaks of the annihilation of democracy," Pistorius continued. "And if I have understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes... that is not acceptable."
In the audience I am sure, were many who had lived under the Russians either in the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact countries and know precisely what it's like to live under authoritarian rule.
The problem with totally unrestrained free speech as provided by the US Constitution, is that you end up with people having the freedom to trot out a lot of crazy conspiracy theories and outright lies and eventually get a man like Donald Trump at the helm. Look where that is taking the USA.
Some of what Vance, and Pete Hegseth the US defence secretary before him, said about Europe defending itself should have been spelled out in private. Their public comments can only weaken the NATO alliance, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t true.
This is a watershed moment. Europe has relied for too long on America. The suggestion that 100,000 troops are needed as a peacekeeping force in Ukraine led by Britain, has apparently come as a surprise. Lord Dannat told the BBC we couldn’t even supply 10,000. With 6 monthly rotations, it would take 30-40,000 troops in total and this is impossible. We have whittled down our armed forces to crisis levels despite a hot war on European soil raging for three years and we haven’t actually done anything to prepare for such an eventuality.
To add further insult, Vance went on to meet Alice Weidel of the German far-right neo-Nazi AfD party while snubbing Scholtz the Chancellor:
JD Vance met the leader of a German far-right party during a visit to Munich, nine days before a German election and after lecturing European leaders about the state of democracy. He said there is no place for “firewalls." Vance met with Alice Weidel, the co-leader… www.seattlepi.com/news/world/a...— Isabel Santos (@isabelsantos.bsky.social) 14 February 2025 at 21:01
If that doesn't send a powerful message nothing will.
Legal Actions against Trump
While Vance is in Europe, the legal challenges against Trump's Executive Orders are piling up. As of this morning, 68 cases are going through the courts. You can follow them HERE. Ordinary people and groups are doing what The Senate should be doing. They are going to law to restrain Trump and his co-president Elon Musk and many of them will succeed
You can expect more challenges in the coming days. The latest news is the dismissal of 5,200 federal workers at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At CDC about 1200 fellows and post-doctoral research staff are being laid off immediately including from the Epidemic Intelligence Service, which looks out for the next pandemic. Let's hope the US doesn't get one.
This occurred, by the way, on the first day of Robert F Kennedy taking over at NIH.
Corporate America is turning against Trump
The FT has a report suggesting many US businesses that supported Trump and his tax and regulation-cutting agenda are having second thoughts after the first three weeks.
Jim Farley, CEO at Ford Motor Co, has told a conference that the impact of tariffs on the automotive sector would be catastrophic. “Long term, a 25% tariff across the Mexico and Canadian border would blow a hole in the US industry that we have never seen.”
Even one of Wall Street’s biggest GOP donors has suggested that the “uncertainty and chaos” created by Trump’s trade tariffs against America's closest allies and partners will end up being “an impediment to growth.” This came from Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel.
Finally, I've just finished a book: Character Limit, How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, and it's obvious that what the unelected billionaire is doing now is exactly what he did at Twitter and I expect the same results. I'll give you a summary on Monday.
