JD Vance's hatred for Europe was displayed in Signal messages
No, bombing Yemen is not bailing Europe out
In February, Vice President J.D. Vance gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference levying accusations toward European governments. He echoed Donald Trump’s campaign point that “the enemy from within” is more of a threat than China, Russia, or North Korea.
A month later, Vance participated in a Signal group chat composed of the highest national security leaders discussing top secret war plans—stating certain times, methods, and locations of attacks.
Despite the obvious breach of security and incompetence displayed, what particularly stood out to me was the vice president’s disdainful messages about Europe.
Vance stated that bombing a designated terrorist group responsible for firing rockets at trade ships in the Red Sea is a mistake. He argued that since the US has only a small amount of goods passing through the region, we aren’t significantly impacted by the attacks on free trade.
His justification for this view relies on presenting a misleading statistic about Europe’s reliance on safe passage of goods in the Red Sea. In reality, the 40% he’s referencing is the percentage of total trade between Asia and Europe going through the Suez Canal.
The VP is also leaving out some pertinent information: a recent report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency shows the Houthis attacks have affected at least 85 countries and nearly 30 major companies. This includes 174 attacks on U.S. warships and 145 attacks on American commercial vessels since 2023.
One country more affected by the Red Sea attacks than the US and Europe is Israel, which has seen an 85 percent drop in activity at its Red Sea port since the attacks began.
Vance then moves to his strongest reason for protecting international maritime trade: to show a message. The greatest military and economic power in human history isn’t supporting its Middle-Eastern or European allies, or protecting its goods traveling through the region nor fighting against the illegal activities of the Houthis. No, Vance’s reason for doing anything was only to show a message.
And who is the intended recipient of this message? It can’t be the Houthis or Iran, because Vance questioned why the Admin is conducting the attack in the first place! The message must be for Europe, which Vance correctly points out receives two conflicting signals from the Admin: ‘protect yourself’ and ‘we’ll assist you’.
Vance would rather delay the action altogether, not to combat terrorism or international crimes, but to ensure the economy remains stable and that their messaging is effective—of course. Though he didn’t have many messages in the chat, he did take the time to reiterate his earlier point on bailing Europe out.
I must ask: how the hell is the US bailing out Europe by striking a designated terrorist group that has been shooting at international trade ships? He never explains. Instead Vance focuses on the Admin’s true priority: tight domestic messaging and the protection of Saudi oil facilities.
Isn’t it odd that the sitting American Vice President is more focused on messaging to supporters and Saudi oil than on European allies, Israeli defense, or international law? I think so.
This is how I see it: if the U.S. has trade being affected by the attacks in the Red Sea (which we do), we should be there to—at least—assist in protection and defense measures, especially given our position of global leadership and Naval superiority. If the US weren’t affected by the trade disruptions and we wanted Europe to protect their own goods, that would be a reasonable argument; it would align with the Admin’s isolationist philosophy. But that’s not the reality in which we live.
Do not let Vance deceive you: Europe has indeed been assisting our efforts to combat the Houthis attacks.
In 2023, former President Joe Biden's Admin announced a multinational coalition of at least 20 countries called Operation Prosperity Guardian to safeguard shipping through the Red Sea. The coalition included Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles and Spain (most of these countries are in Europe).
In 2024, the European Union created Operation Aspides. Thus far, they have intercepted four ballistic missiles, 18 aerial drones, and two sea drones while protecting more than 400 commercial ships. Additionally, Britain carried out five joint airstrikes with the U.S. against Houthi sites last year as Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand provided non-operational support for the strikes.
Ironically for Vance, just a week before he sent these messages, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters Starmer and Trump had discussed U.S. strikes against Houthi targets, which Britain would support with routine air-to-air refueling.
VP Vance often lets his confidence cloud his ability to understand the facts of any given situation. He selectively uses misleading stats when needed. His contempt for our European friends was presented to us when Vance publicly humiliated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on national television. It was on display again in the Signal messages.
In the literal conversation about attacking a terrorist group impairing global trade, Vance could only muster up criticisms of Europe, with no mention of the Houthis, Hamas, Iran, or Russia. It’s clear who he deems the true enemies of civilization.