Vice President JD Vance continued his criticism of European leaders on Thursday, telling a conservative crowd that “civilization” is at risk if they don’t follow President Donald Trump’s lead.
“You followed the lead of Joe Biden into censorship and mass migration. Now follow the lead of Donald J. Trump, and that’s free speech, borders and sovereignty,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “That is the future of our shared civilization.”
The remarks were far better received at CPAC than at last week’s Munich Security Conference, where Vance railed against foreign allies for how they handle domestic politics. Vance received a standing ovation at CPAC when he first discussed the speech.
“You guys liked it — not everybody liked it,” he said.
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Vance said at CPAC that European conservatives must take the lead in expanding conservative values across the West.
“You do not have shared values if you are so afraid of your own people that you silence them and shut them up,” Vance said. “You don’t have shared values if you’re jailing people for saying we should close down our border.”
Vance said that mass migration is the greatest risk for European civilization and for the U.S. “If the Democrats ever get power again, they’re going to try to do it again,” he said.
Vance also used the stage to defend Trump’s approach to peace talks in Ukraine. Trump has spent the past several days criticizing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy — he called him a “dictator” on Truth Social — and saying Ukraine, not Russia, was to blame for starting the war.
Like many Republicans, Vance framed the situation as a negotiating tactic. Vance said that Trump’s greatest quality as a negotiator is that he “doesn’t take anything off the table.”
“We’re at the cusp of peace in Europe for the first time in three years because we have leadership in the Oval Office and we haven’t had it in four years in this country,” Vance said.
“Peace is in the interest of Russia, peace in the interest of Ukraine, peace in the interest of Europe — but most importantly peace is in the interest of the American people,” he added.
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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