As the United States and Russia prepare for high-level negotiations in Saudi Arabia to seek an end to the war in Ukraine, European leaders have convened an emergency summit in Paris, deeply concerned about being excluded from the talks.
The growing divide between the U.S. and its European allies over Ukraine’s future became particularly evident at the recent Munich Security Conference, where American officials signaled a shift in approach that left European leaders unsettled. Elie Tenenbaum, director of the Security Studies Center at the French Institute for International Relations, described the situation as Europe’s “worst nightmare” unfolding in real time, writes NPR.
“Their worst nightmare has come true,” he says. “They see that the Trump administration is going to bypass them and try to strong-arm Ukraine in negotiating a deal with Russia to end the war.”
Tenenbaum says European leaders were hopeful that the U.S. and Europe could work together under the new Trump administration. But comments last week in Europe by several U.S. officials — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Brussels, Vice President JD Vance and special Russia-Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg in Munich, and by President Trump himself after an hour-and-a-half call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, have poured cold water on any such hopes.
“The Europeans now realize they are standing alone,” he says.
German Christian Democrat Norbert Röttgen, a longtime advocate for transatlantic alliances, said the Trump administration had in effect declared an ideological war on Europe. “They want to divide us and kill Europe,” he told French newspaper Le Monde.
The growing divisions come in the aftermath of Vice President JD Vance traveling to Europe and criticizing the continent for the lack of free speech.
Vance stunned European leaders by condemning their erosion of free speech, likening his remarks to Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech. Instead of warning against external threats like Russia or China, Vance criticized European nations for abandoning core democratic values shared with the U.S. He specifically called out the EU’s censorship policies, particularly under Thierry Breton and the Digital Services Act, accusing European allies of hypocrisy—demanding U.S. military support while undermining free speech. Vance argued that before further defending Europe, the West must reaffirm what it truly stands for.
JD Vance went to the Munich Security Conference and roasted the entire continent of Europe for being petty tyrants and criminalizing freedom of speech, including a British man arrested for praying at an abortion clinic.
pic.twitter.com/o51VoWZ6Mr— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 14, 2025
Despite criticisms from liberals both abroad and at home, including an insane rant by CBS Host Margaret Brennan in which she blamed free speech for the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, German prosecutors mistakenly made the vice president’s point for him. During a “60 Minutes” interview intended to be a criticism of Vance, three German leaders defended their restrictions of free speech.
The Press: “JD Vance is lying about speech censorship in Europe!”
Also the Press: “So you can go to jail for re-posting something that is wrong?” Germans: yes.
pic.twitter.com/vSkHuPy1AI— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) February 17, 2025
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