Following the public disaster that the meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was, JD Vance has been quite vocal about how the Ukrainian leader was not behaving as he was supposed to. Elon Musk has also joined them in criticizing Zelenskyy and his ways of dealing with the Russia-Ukraine war.
However, things got a little tricky for Vance after he took an apparent jibe at the UK and France in a Fox interview. In that interview, Vance was heard saying, “If you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine.”
He further added, “That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.” While he did not take the names of France and UK, the comments clearly indicated those two countries as they have confirmed that they are ready to “boots on the ground” when it comes to Ukraine.
Vance did not expect the backlash he started receiving soon after his comments. MPs from different political spectrums unanimously criticized Vance for his stance. Helen Maguire, the Lib Dem defence spokesperson, said, “JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
NATO Article 5 has been invoked once – on 12/9/01 by 🇺🇸, after 9/11.
🇬🇧 &🇫🇷 came to their aid deploying 1,000s of personnel to Afghanistan, including my own brother & numerous parliamentary colleagues, past & present. It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service & sacrifice. https://t.co/qMUaSKF7tT
— James Cartlidge MP 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 (@jcartlidgemp) March 4, 2025
As per BBC, she added, “I saw firsthand how American and British soldiers fought bravely together shoulder to shoulder. Six of my own regiment, the Royal Military Police, didn’t return home from Iraq. This is a sinister attempt to deny that reality.”
Johnny Mercer, who was a Tory MP and an Army Officer with experience serving in Afghanistan, did not mince his words and said, “This clown needs to check his privilege. JD Vance’s book making the mistake of finding him quite interesting.”
He also added, “By his own admission he spent his time in the Marines ‘writing articles and taking pictures’. Perhaps if he had got his hands dirty serving his country like so many of his fellow American and British veterans, chasing his own country’s crazy foreign policy ideas, he might not be so quick to dismiss their sacrifice.”
Overwhelmed with these responses, Vance took to X to clarify that he apparently did not mean France and UK when he made that statement. He also highlighted the fact that he never used the names of those countries in the first place and it is “absurdly dishonest” to even think that he was referring to the UK and France. He wrote, “I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond.”
This is absurdly dishonest.
I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond. https://t.co/hrkb5pTV8p
— JD Vance (@JDVance) March 4, 2025
However, Vance’s attempts to defend what he said seem not to be going very well. X users continued to ask him, if not France and the UK, which countries he was referring to.
Which country are you talking about?
Has a country other than Britain or France proposed sending peacekeeping troops?
— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) March 4, 2025
Someone tweeted, “I’m sorry, could you please clarify specifically WHO you were speaking about then? You seem to prefer to disrespect countries indirectly…”
I’m sorry, could you please clarify specifically WHO you were speaking about then? You seem to prefer to disrespect countries indirectly…
— humansareindefensiblystupid (@humansareindef1) March 4, 2025
It now remains to be seen what else Vance has to say in defense.
