2025 JD Vance speech at the Munich Security Conference

Senator, delivered the address amid growing tensions over changes in U.S.–European relations under the second Trump administration, and with regards to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ongoing political and economic crises in Romania and Germany respectively.

[5][6] The speech's central thesis was said by media outlets to focus on what Vance described as internal threats being the greatest dangers to European democracy, rather than external challenges from nations like Russia or China.

Vance connected the vehicle-ramming attack conducted by an Afghan immigrant on trade union demonstrators in Munich on the eve of the conference to the issue and argued for greater responsiveness to public concerns about migration.

Vance compared the annulment to Soviet-era practices, saying that "if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn't very strong to begin with.

[13] Vance accused European leaders of using "ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation" in order to hide "old, entrenched interests" against alternative viewpoints that "might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different way—or even worse, win an election.

"[8] The Vice President also heavily denounced the UK government for its "renegade" free speech laws, citing the example of Adam Smith Connor, who was jailed for breaching a "safe access zone" around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

[14] He also denounced Sweden's conviction of a Christian activist for burning a Quran as prosecution of religious expression, police crackdowns on anti-feminist comments in Germany, and letters sent by the Scottish government to people in Scotland whose homes were in safe access zones warning them that allegedly outlawed private prayer.

[8] On domestic American politics, Vance criticized former United States President Joe Biden for working with social media corporations to censor "misinformation," including his claim that COVID-19 possibly leaked from a lab in Wuhan.

He also criticized European rhetoric of framing of Western towards Russia and Ukraine as a "defense of democracy" in contrast to his earlier examples of alleged infringements of democratic principles in Europe.

Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre said that while Vance could address whatever points he wished to at the summit, he disagreed that the "presumed" erosion of freedom of speech in Europe was more important than the ongoing security issues regarding Ukraine, Russia, and China.