At the 2025 Munich Security Conference, the increasingly isolationist and unpredictable Trump administration left European leaders rethinking their security in an era of unprecedented conflict. Their anxieties peaked on February 14th, when Vice President JD Vance stunned the delegates by accusing European leaders of rolling back free speech, loosening migration policies, and failing to meet their share of defense commitments. His blistering speech, decrying the state of European democracy, ended with tepid applause and a few rising to their feet.
Vance claimed that the greatest danger to European security is not Russia nor China but the “threat from within.” He accused many European governments of “retreating from some of [Europe’s] most fundamental values” shared with America. He also questioned whether European democracies were holding themselves to an “appropriately high standard,” by not listening to the “conscience” of the electorate, especially on “out of control immigration.”
The vice president singled out many countries in his attacks: he criticized Romania because of the decision to annul the presidential election over alleged Russian influence; he condemned Sweden for convicting an activist of a hate crime for staging public burnings of the Quran; he also rebuked the host country Germany for shunning far-right political parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) out of the centrist governing coalition.
Vance’s remarks went beyond the usual transatlantic dispute over the defense contributions, exposing a deeper ideological divide. Unsatisfied with the European centrist establishment, he expressed support for the populist far-right to seize power in Europe, promising that a “new sheriff in town” would help them achieve their goals.
Reactions to Vance’s speech were polarized. The German chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a strong rebuke to Vance on Saturday, calling the speech “not appropriate.” He and the German opposition leader Friedrich Merz had asserted it was not right for others to tell Germany and Europe what to do. Still, others, such as Switzerland’s president, welcomed the speech and interpreted it as a rallying call for direct democracy.
Vance’s speech underscored America’s retreat from its traditional role in European security. On February 13th, during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Defense Ministers meeting in Brussels, Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth envisioned a “recasting” of the 75-year-old military alliance where America is no longer “the primary guarantor of peace in Europe”. Regarding the Ukraine War, Hegseth stated, “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective” in peace talks with Russia.
One day before Hegseth’s statement, President Donald Trump had made a “lengthy and highly productive” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, abruptly ending the U.S. efforts to isolate Russia since the start of the Ukraine War. According to Trump’s former security advisor, Trump has “effectively surrendered” to Putin. He fulfilled Putin’s long-standing wish: Russia and the U.S. negotiating while the rest of the world stood by.
These recent actions by the Trump administration signal the twilight of Pax Americana or the era of U.S. hegemony in Europe. Unlike previous administrations which defended Europe from the aggression of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the current one focused on levying tariff wars against its closest allies and proposing the acquisition of Greenland.
In the new America-First era, the U.S. is behaving, in columnist Bret Stephens’ words, “not as a Great Power – with ‘great’ entailing moral considerations – but as a Big Power, one that frightens other countries, including our shaken friends.” Given the U.S. departure, Ukrainian President Zelensky’s call for a unified European army no longer seems far-fetched.
