Vance’s Free Speech Hypocrisy

Forget throwing stones—the VP is swinging a wrecking ball from his own glass house

In a recent speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance criticized European countries for allegedly retreating from free speech, pointing to censorship in places like Scotland, Romania, and Germany. While he claims to defend freedom of expression, Vance’s record, and that of the Trump administration, tell a different story.

Trump and his allies have often attacked free speech when it doesn’t align with their views. Trump has referred to journalists as “enemies of the people,” and prominent Trump supporters like Elon Musk have called for severe punishments for truthful reporting. Additionally, Trump has weaponized lawsuits to silence dissent, as this Ken White piece in The UnPopulist documents.

Vance’s paean to free speech in Munich was never really about defending expression—it was about controlling it. As Robert Tracinski described it in The UnPopulist:

The whole speech was a vast Orwellian contradiction in which authoritarian politics and propaganda campaigns by a hostile government are afforded the label of “free speech.” But the intent was clear. The current leaders of the U.S. want Europe to submit to having authoritarian and racist regimes imposed on it to match the authoritarian model revived by Russia and now adopted in America. It is a plan for the political domination of Europe by the great powers that surround it.

The vice president’s criticism of Europe rings hollow, as I highlight in my video. The administration he is a part of, and his political movement more broadly, have shown zero interest in protecting free speech. Quite the opposite: they have sought to suppress speech that is critical of their actions.

Watch it below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.

© The UnPopulist, 2025

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