President Donald Trump downplayed the massive diplomatic backlash to J.D. Vance’s tirade at a recent conference in Germany, where the U.S. vice president questioned whether European values were even worth defending anymore.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Vance repeatedly took aim at European leaders for perceived curtailments of free speech and failure to tackle the supposed threat of migration to European security and identity.
In a clip from a White House press conference held at the Oval Office shortly after Vance delivered his remarks, a reporter asked the president what he thought about the speech that “ruffled quite a few feathers” across the Atlantic.
“Do you believe that European leaders have a fundamentally different view of the world than this administration?” the reporter asked.
“I heard his speech, and he talked about freedom of speech, and I think it’s true,” Trump shot back. “In Europe, it’s losing, they’re losing their wonderful right to freedom of speech.”
Further praising Vance for his “very good” and “brilliant” address at the conference, Trump warned that “Europe has to be careful” given that the continent is facing “a very big immigration problem.”
The president added he thought Vance’s speech had been “very well received, actually” and that he had only “heard very good remarks.”
Trump perhaps missed the reaction of Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who delivered a scathing response to Vance just moments after his address on Friday.
“He speaks of the annihilation of democracy,” the German official said. “And if I have understood him correctly, he is comparing conditions in parts of Europe to those in authoritarian regimes… That is not acceptable.”
