Alan Zendell, February 15, 2025

Scan any news site, today, and you’ll get the same impression from all of them. The only difference is that the pro-MAGA sites are mocking the opposition’s apparent lack of defense, while the progressive sites seem to be describing a horror show. So far, Trump’s promise to dismantle the federal government and America’s treaties and alliances, and remake them in his image is going according to plan.

That’s where you might be fooled. To all appearances, Trump seems to be having things all his way, so far. His shock and awe approach to governing seems to have the Democrats and everyone else who believes in our Constitution and position in the world running for cover. All the noise is coming from Trump, and some of it is shocking. Taking Greenland away from Denmark, relocating 2.2 million people from Gaza so Trump can develop a resort, annexing Canada?

Rather than falling for the MAGA trap – trying to address every outrageous thing at the same time – I will focus today on Vice President J. D. Vance, who is quite capable of creating a global horror show on his own.

Vance joined the Marines out of high school, a fact he repeats whenever he can, along with the fact that he served a deployment to Iraq. What he doesn’t mention is that he was a Marine journalist, and his time in Iraq never took him close to combat. He earned a law degree from Yale, after which he worked for Senator John Cornyn (R, TX) for a year. He tried his hand at venture capitalizing, but both of his capital ventures failed without accomplishing anything. His memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which described eastern Kentucky as a place with few educational opportunities and a culture based on coal and drug addiction, was characterized by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear as insulting and offensive to real Kentuckians.

When Vance, who strongly opposed Donald Trump in 2016, became a loud anti-immigration advocate and began supporting right-wing political parties, he gained Trump’s endorsement in the 2022 Ohio Senate race. His outspoken support of Trump’s policies, and his loyalty pledge to Trump are the reasons he is now our Vice President. He is an accomplished speaker who is skilled at manipulating truth and graying the lines between fact and fiction, and seems fearless when addressing massive gatherings of powerful people.

Thus, it was Vance who Trump sent to the Munich Security Conference this week, a top level gathering of our European allies. The Conference had been led to believe that Vance was there to brief them on Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine. Instead, however, they received a lecture on how to run a democracy. In political and diplomatic terms, Vance is a young pup with no relevant experience. It was no surprise, then, that his remarks to European leaders were met mostly with stone-faced silence.

He was arrogant and offensive addressing people with far more experience and understanding than he possesses. He accused Europe, particularly its most powerful and influential nation, Germany, of allowing immigration to destroy their countries and demonizing legitimate far-right political parties. By Vance’s definition, that’s a violation of free speech, and he opined that suppressing far-right opinions was a greater threat to Europe than Russia and China.

Whether he failed to recognize that Europe’s history with Fascism made his remarks both insulting and inappropriate, or he just didn’t give a damn, his diatribe in Munich did not go over well. It’s not clear whether Vance showed poor judgment or whether he simply bought into the Trump approach of attacking everyone who disagrees with him. Especially after touring Dachau and telling the  press he was grateful for the experience, he apparently missed the point of all the signs loudly declaring: “NEVER AGAIN!”

Vance aimed his remarks primarily at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. But Scholz did not respond the way most American politicians have to Trump and Vance. Scholz spoke sharply about Germany’s 80-year commitment to never allowing Nazism to rise in Germany again. Germany, in fact, defends its refusal to work with right-wing parties that spout Nazi slogans and policies, and has passed a law enabling its courts to outlaw such parties when their speech or actions appear to openly support Nazi power. Scholz accused Vance and Trump of interfering with German democracy. The pro-Nazi Alternative for Germany party is running second in the polls in next week’s election.

Vance’s alienation of European leaders coincided with Trump demanding that every member of NATO contribute five percent of its GNP to defending the alliance, a sharp increase from the two percent that he previously agreed upon. It also coincided with Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky’s appeal for a European army to help him oust Russian invaders from his country, as Europe’s leaders conclude they can no longer rely on America’s support.

Vance did exactly what Trump wanted him to, but I doubt that Trump expected the kind of unified rejection he elicited.