JD Vance Says NATO Should Only Get Support If Europe Plays Nice With Elon Musk

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JD Vance, vice presidential candidate and generally weird guy, made a recent appearance on the YouTube show of Shawn Ryan where he defended the honor of Elon Musk. Strangely, Vance insisted that if European countries aren’t nicer to the billionaire owner of X, the U.S. shouldn’t support the NATO alliance.

Vance told Ryan he forgot “exactly which official it was within the European Union,” who had been mean to Musk, but said the regulator “sent Elon this threatening letter that basically said, ‘We’re going to arrest you if you platform Donald Trump, who by the way is the likely next president of the United States.’”

Vance appears to be thinking of Thierry Breton, a European regulator, sent Musk a letter back in August. Breton was concerned about the way extremist content has been promoted recently on X, though he didn’t threaten to arrest Musk. Vance insisted all of this amounted to censorship, a word he doesn’t seem to understand very well.

“So what America should be saying is, ‘Oh, if NATO wants us to continue supporting them and NATO wants us to continue to be a good participant in this military alliance, why don’t you respect American values and respect free speech,’” Vance said.

To be clear, there’s nothing in the NATO treaty that requires European countries to ignore their own laws about the spread of misinformation and hate speech in order to appease the U.S. or senators from Ohio, for that matter.

“It’s insane that we would support a military alliance if that military alliance isn’t going to be pro-free speech,” Vance continued. “I think we can do both, but we’ve got to say American power comes with certain strings attached. One of those is respect free speech, especially in our European allies.”

Vance then went on to insult other nations of the world while trying to put Europe in its place.

“Like, look, I’m not going to go to some backwards country and tell them how to live their lives, but European countries should theoretically share American values, especially about some very basic things like free speech,” Vance said.

Vance has been a controversial figure ever since he was named as Trump’s running mate, repeatedly insulting people who don’t have children and saying that “childless cat ladies” are ruining America. The vice presidential candidate was also instrumental in spreading a racist lie that Haitian migrants to Ohio were eating pets in the town of Springfield, Ohio.

But somehow the entire Trump campaign seems to become more and more extreme and racist by the day. An ad Trump posted Tuesday to Truth Social depicts Harris and Walz in 1960s-style Chinese Communist attire and calls Walz a Manchurian candidate. The ad is replete with racist music, featuring racist claims, and is just one of the more racist things you’ll see come out of any so-called “mainstream” political campaign.

There are 49 days until Election Day. If you haven’t registered to vote, you should do that. Because this election matters.