POLITICO: The Earth has irrevocably shifted under Europe’s feet

JD Vance’s fiery speech at the Munich Security Conference — part of his multi-day debut on the world stage as U.S. vice president — dominated the marathon high-level gabfest among hundreds of top foreign dignitaries and national security elites, writes POLITICO.

“No one is talking about anything else,” said a senior Eastern European official.

Vance railed against establishment politics, urged Europe to curb migration and compared EU leaders to Soviet commissars because they had criticized far-right leaders. The tongue-lashing cemented fears among Europe’s security elites that the United States was diverging from the transatlantic status quo at a rapid pace, and there was little they could do to stop it.

Vance, in a departure from the defense-focused discussions that are a hallmark of the annual Munich Security Conference, accused European leaders of ignoring the will of their people, who he insisted were being censored and repressed from expressing their populist views and practicing their faiths.

The vice president also criticized high levels of immigration, echoing themes that fueled Donald Trump’s return to power in the U.S. Vance said he’d pray for the victims of Thursday’s attack in Munich, where a migrant drove a car into a crowd, injuring dozens of people.

But with Europe clamoring for clarity after comments from Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that cast serious doubts on America’s security commitment to Ukraine and Europe, Vance’s speech barely mentioned Ukraine and defense spending, the topics preoccupying European leaders in meetings with U.S. officials here.

“This is a new United States and it’s clear the old one Europe’s been used to for decades is gone,” said one former senior U.S. diplomat. “It could be this is the one wake-up call that actually wakes Europe up.”

POLITICO spoke to 14 conference attendees at the forum, several of whom were granted anonymity to discuss their reactions to Vance’s speech candidly. Many reacted with a mixture of shock and anger.

From inside an overflow room — the main conference hall was jam-packed — attendees laughed sardonically when Vance mentioned “shared values.” Not once, but twice, people in the room said “that was some weird shit” — quoting George W. Bush’s reaction to Trump’s first inauguration speech in 2017.

That went for the professional diplomats, too. “This is all so insane and worrying,” said a German official.

“I was aghast,” said a former House Democratic staffer attending the conference. “It’s not Russia influencing your elections, you are? He was blaming the victim.”

“What the f..k was that? I had my mouth open in a room full of people with their mouth open,” he said. “That was bad.”

When asked by reporters about Vance’s speech, Trump said it was a “very good speech, actually very brilliant.”

But others conceded that Vance’s real audience wasn’t in Munich, but rather the MAGA base back home — and other populist groups in Europe hungry to oust establishment parties in future elections.

Even among the stunned audience at his speech in Munich, some European officials are welcoming the sharp jolt the MAGA world delivered to the continent.

They believe shocks to the system, like Vance’s speech and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s suggestion that the U.S. could look to reduce its military presence in Europe, will finally force Europe to realize it can’t rely on the United States in the same way it has for decades.

While the first Trump term was seen almost as an accident in many capitals, the second is an indication that the Earth has irrevocably shifted under Europe’s feet.

Vance’s speech also underscored how European officials can’t paper over the chasm with Trump’s Washington, even as they try to balance keeping the NATO alliance strong while navigating the president’s efforts to broker a peace deal in Ukraine.

Top European officials who may have come into the weekend ready to be careful and diplomatic with the Americans took the gloves off after Vance’s speech. “If I understood him correctly, he is comparing parts of Europe with authoritarian regimes. This is not acceptable,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

Speaking at a POLITICO Pub panel on the sidelines of the conference, Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said he was onboard with Vance to the extent that governments should respect election results and not censor the media — but he said Vance was a poor messenger. Vance, he said, refuses to say he respects the results of the 2020 election Trump lost.

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