The response in Europe to J.D Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference last Friday was one of predictable outrage. Media outlets described it as a ‘rant’ or a ‘sermon’, and politicians and diplomats queued up to criticise the vice-president of America. Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, accused the Trump administration of ‘try[ing] to pick a fight with us, and we don’t want to a pick a fight with our friends’.
Apparently, there were ‘dry laughs’ from some of the audience when Vance talked about ‘shared’ values. European diplomats have laughed at Trump before, notably in 2018 at the UN General Assembly, when he warned that ‘Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.’
The dry laughs and indignation in Munich soon abated, as news broke on Saturday afternoon of another deadly attack by an immigrant; this one in the quiet Austrian town of Villach, where a Syrian reportedly
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