The Vance Doctrine

Depending on whom you talk to, J.D. Vance is either a foreign policy naif or an embittered War on Terror vet driven by fear that the West’s foundational civilization is being washed away. The truth may be somewhere in between.

Vance has become the most acerbic messenger of Trump’s view that Europe has taken advantage of American taxpayers by not investing enough in its own defense. But if the president loathes what he perceives as the Europeans’ almost effeminate weakness—especially compared to Putin’s machismo—Vance’s contempt for the continent’s leadership seems deeper, and more ideological. Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Julia Ioffe

March 27, 2025

Even in private conversations, or what he assumes are private conversations, Vice President J.D. Vance can’t resist sticking it to the Europeans. Buried in the now-public treasure trove of Signal messages on the “Houthi PC small group” chat, Vance offered a strange criticism of Donald Trump’s decision to bomb the group in Yemen. The strike would be a “mistake,” he said—not because he was an isolationist who didn’t want the U.S. to get bogged down in yet another conflict, but rather because reopening the Red Sea trade route would benefit Europe more than America. “3 percent of U.S. trade runs through suez [sic]. 40 percent of European trade does,” he wrote. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”