J.D. Vance’s Germany Visit Sparks Outrage as U.S. Aligns with Far-Right

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Amanda Austin
February 19, 2025
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Senator JD Vance (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/ via JTA)

J.D. Vance’s recent visit to Germany has failed to generate the “shock and revulsion” it should have, argued a columnist. The vice president delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conference that New Republic editor Michael Tomasky described as “shocking and immoral.” Additionally, Vance met with the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party—an organization shunned by mainstream German parties—while opting not to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“This is not remotely normal,” Tomasky wrote, acknowledging that the U.S. has historically aligned with autocratic regimes, particularly during the Cold War to counter communism. “Vance’s meeting — and Elon Musk’s earlier one, since he, too, is a member of our government, however shadily — is something much different. It’s ideologically motivated.

Vance and Musk, and by extension their boss, President Donald Trump, like what AfD stands for, and they want the world to know they like it.” While AfD currently trails behind the conservative Christian Democrats, its potential to close the 8-point polling gap and gain control of Germany’s government is alarming.

“Combine this with what we already know about Ukraine,” Tomasky wrote. “The Trump administration is going to give Putin whatever he wants. What exactly this is, we don’t yet know. But when Saudi Arabia is hosting talks that include the U.S. and Russia only, and not Ukraine or the other nations of Europe, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to smell the fix that’s in.”

Vance and Elon Musk — President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vice President-elect JD Vance attend the NCAA college football game. (AP/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Trump has suggested Ukraine should hand over much of its wealth to him and even implied the country “may be Russian one day” if it does not comply. Tomasky expressed deep concern over the transformation of the U.S. government just four weeks into Trump’s second term.

“It’s a horrifying thing to watch,” he wrote. “The transformation is happening domestically, too, of course; even more pronouncedly than in the realm of foreign affairs. Musk’s DOGE power grab, the firings of civil servants, the attacks on the press like the barring of The Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, the hideous cuts to scientific research — these and other moves, like the coming assault on Medicaid and all the many services it provides to both poor and middle-class people, all carried out by unilateral edict, are the acts of a government making its contempt for democratic norms clear every day. Several times a day.”

“But somehow, while foreign policy doesn’t matter as much in Americans’ day-to-day lives, it tells the rest of the world what kind of nation we have become,” Tomasky added. “Step by step, the United States of America is becoming part of a global fascist network. Do we care yet?”