RT @RnaudBertrand
I'm surprised this 👇 didn't make more noise in Europe because this is unarguably a MUCH bigger deal than the sanctions on Thierry Breton.

The Vice President of the United States is officially saying that Europe's right to possess nuclear weapons is conditional on Europeans voting for people Washington approves of.

In other words, he's literally saying that democracy in Europe is a national security threat to the United States.

I'm not exaggerating: he explicitly calls European election outcomes "a very direct threat to the United States of America" if "Islamist-adjacent people" eventually gain "significant influence in a European nuclear power" by winning national elections.

Which is perfect proof that all his talk in Munich and in the new National Security Strategy about Europe needing to be more "democratic" is code for "electing people we approve of."

It's also utterly bizarre to have such civilizational determinism, whereby if France ever were to have a Muslim president they'd necessarily want to nuke the US. Like, wtf?

By this logic, Pakistan - an actual Muslim-majority nuclear power - should terrify Washington, yet the Trump administration actually has excellent relations with them (which causes great ire in India). It's all so incoherent.

As a matter of fact, the nuclear argument is so absurd it can't be the real concern. What Washington actually fears isn't a French Muslim president nuking the US - it's one who might, for instance, pursue independent policies in the Middle East. "Islamist-adjacent" is just code for "not sufficiently aligned with US interests."

Which means what they're actually terrified of is democracy and independent policymaking in Europe. The identity politics fear-mongering is just the PR for it.

https://unherd.com/2025/12/full-transcript-jd-vance-on-american-identity/