Only a few hours after U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance scolded European leaders on Friday night from the Munich Security Conference podium on the issue of freedom of expression, U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down, responding to reporters at the Oval Office, stating that Europe was losing its right to freedom of speech and struggling with immigration.
“I heard his speech. He talked about freedom of speech. And I think it’s true,” Trump told reporters. “In Europe, it’s losing their wonderful right of freedom of speech. I see it.”
Earlier, Vance accused European politicians of censoring free speech and reprimanded them on their immigration policies.
Trump claimed that his vice president’s speech was well received.
From the start of his speech at the Munich Conference, Vance made it clear who was in charge of the geopolitical chessboard. Referring to Donald Trump’s election, he asserted, “There’s a new sheriff in town.”
Vance’s speech stunned European leaders, with the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz describing U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference as “incomprehensible” and “frustrating.”
His political rival, Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union, called Vance’s appearance “almost intrusive” and criticized his “irritating manner” in dealing with Europeans, particularly Germans.
In a post on the platform “X,” Scholz explicitly rejected Vance’s remarks, emphasizing that, “due to their experience with National Socialism, democratic parties in Germany maintain a consensus: a firewall against far-right parties.”
