I can’t help but wonder when Vice President JD Vance might take a hard look at his own administration.
Just last month, Vance—who prides himself on being a foreign policy “realist” and doesn’t buy into the binary of “good guys” versus “bad guys”—stirred the pot at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Interestingly, his controversy wasn’t from championing a morally ambiguous realpolitik stance but from delivering a stern, moralistic talk. He lamented how our allies aren’t as progressive about free speech as they should be. “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” he remarked, more disappointed than angry.
Vance tried to balance his commentary by admitting that America’s track record isn’t flawless. “And, in the spirit of fairness, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I must acknowledge that sometimes the loudest proponents of censorship have emerged not from Europe but from within my own country, where the previous administration pressured social media companies to suppress so-called misinformation.”
The underlying message was clear: his administration would stand as a true defender of free speech.
I have to mention, I do find myself agreeing with many of Vance’s critiques regarding our allies and the Biden administration. However, it strikes me as odd that someone who argues for reducing judgment on oppressive regimes’ internal matters chose to chastise democratic allies in such a Wilsonian manner. Just because it was inappropriate for him to choose that venue doesn’t mean his points were entirely off-base.
What’s crucial here is whether he even believed what he said.
Fast forward to Friday, when Vance’s superior, President Trump, addressed the Department of Justice staff. Much of his speech revolved around airing his grievances about previous investigations into his behavior.
Known for his bluntness and deft rhetoric, the president labeled various former officials as “scum” and critiqued judges who ruled against him, saying, “It’s unimaginable how corrupt they were.”
In Trump’s narrative, this corruption is compounded by a “really corrupt” media that he claims pressures judges to rule unfavorably toward him. He lumped the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and dubbed “MSDNC” as “fake news,” declaring, “what they do is illegal.”
“It’s totally illegal what they do,” he told the gathered prosecutors. “I just hope you can all keep an eye on this, but it’s totally illegal.” And he repeated, “It has to stop. It must be illegal. It’s swaying judges and altering laws, which shouldn’t be legal. I don’t believe it is.”
Reality check: It’s legal.
In essence, the president informed the top federal law enforcement officials that, in his view, negative press coverage of him is illegal, urging them to “watch out” for such actions.
But that’s not all.
The president, whose campaign website vows to “end censorship and reclaim free speech,” and who boasted before Congress that he “restored free speech in America,” has been actively working to suppress not just college campus protests—which may occasionally cross lines from free speech—but also educational curriculums and internal policies.
His Department of Justice issued a threatening letter to a Congress member who criticized Elon Musk.
The White House has also reshaped press coverage by denying the Associated Press access to significant events, reportedly because it won’t refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, a rebranding effort by Trump.
In its fight against “misinformation” and partisan “fake news,” the administration has given credentials to extremely pro-Trump outlets, like Gateway Pundit, and Mike Lindell’s LindellTV. At the same time, over the weekend, Trump ordered the closure of Voice of America for being “anti-Trump.” VOA was originally established to counter propaganda with factual reporting and was a beacon of truth against authoritarian regimes during its inception.
You might not oppose all these initiatives, but the overarching theme seems inconsistent with a vice president who declared, mostly supported by anecdotes, that Europe’s biggest challenge is a “threat from within, a retreat from its core values”—namely, free speech—”the United States shares.”
@JonahDispatch
