US Vice President JD Vance has come out swinging against European allies – not for how they manage their national security or for not enough defense spending, but for not listening to their citizens and suppressing voices they disagree with.

Vice President JD Vance urged European leaders on Friday to fight back against censorship, declaring that their contempt for and even criminalization of free speech was posing the biggest threat on the continent — more even than Russian aggression.

Vice President JD Vance confronted European leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Friday over their support for authoritarian restrictions on speech, putting the assembled dignitaries on notice that the Trump administration expects the continent to revive its commitment to Western values.