spoiler
JD Vance has suggested that American support for NATO should be predicated on the European Union not regulating Elon Musk and his X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
The Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio senator claimed in an interview with YouTuber Shawn Ryan that a top EU official had threatened to arrest the billionaire if he allowed former President Donald Trump back on X.
“The leader, I forget exactly which official it was within the European Union, but 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 said in the interview published last week.
Trump’s running mate then suggested that US support for NATO should be used as a cudgel to get the Europeans in line.
“So what America should be saying is, 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 asked. “It’s insane that we would support a military alliance if that military alliance isn’t going to be pro-free speech. 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.”
Musk has been accused of banning several journalists since taking over Twitter, now X.
“I’m not going to go to some backwoods country and tell them how to live their lives,” Vance added. “But European countries should theoretically share American values, especially about some very basic things like free speech.”
The US ranked 26th in the world when it comes to free speech, with several members of the European Union higher up the list, according to the 2024 Global Expression Report.
Internal market EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote on X in July that the platform’s verification system of users using blue checks is deceiving.
“Now X has the right of defence —but if our view is confirmed we will impose fines & require significant changes,” he added.
Musk who responded at the time, saying: “We look forward to a very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth.”
“The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not,” he added in another post.
X could face disciplinary action under the EU Digital Services Act that was put in place in 2022. The legislation includes a number of regulations stating that platforms have to take responsibility for protecting European users from illegal content and disinformation.
Vance has faced criticism for putting forward, in the same interview, a peace plan for the war in Ukraine that would appear to benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin, who views NATO as a top adversary.
Ryan asked Vance what Trump’s plan was to end the war in Ukraine.
The senator said Trump would have a discussion with the Russians, Ukrainians, and Europeans and tell them that they “need to figure out what a peaceful settlement looks like.”
Vance also told Ryan that a possible peace agreement could mean that Russia would hold onto the land they have seized and that a demilitarized zone would be implemented along the current frontlines. Vance added that Ukraine would also give Russia a “guarantee of neutrality.”
“What it probably looks like is something like the current line of demarcation between Russia and Ukraine becomes like a demilitarized zone, heavily fortified [so] the Russians don’t invade again,” he said.
Trump’s running mate also suggested that Europe, specifically Germany, and not Russia, would have to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine.
“Ukraine remains an independent sovereignty. Russia gets the guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine. It does not join NATO and some other allied institutions. Germans and other nations have to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction,” Vance added.
Ukraine has been trying to join NATO and the European Union for years. Already in 2008, then-NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Ukraine would eventually become a member of the military alliance.
Trump has long shared his disdain for NATO – during his first term, he reportedly privately discussed pulling out of the alliance completely.
The former president has also repeatedly indicated that he would refuse to adhere to NATO’s Article 5 collective defense clause, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Earlier this year, he said he had told a foreign leader that he would urge Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who were not spending enough on defense.
Trump has also made a habit of praising dictators and authoritarian leaders, showing a particular affinity for Putin, whom he called “genius” and “savvy” after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The then-president also sided with Putin over the US intelligence community when asked about Russian interference in the 2016 election during a 2018 press conference with the Russian leader in Helsinki, Finland.
dissolving NATO to protect Musk’s ego
the dumbest of all timelines
Wonder if the intelligence apparatus would actually consider trying to kill these idiots over this
I’m curious wtf the deep state is up to these days. How did the guys who took out JFK allowed things to go this haywire?
The (somewhat) competent evil people who built the American empire are long dead. We’re dealing with their children or their children’s children, idiotic slobs raised on the spoils of war, completely unqualified to manage the empire.
So basically the plot of Succession I guess, except with ELEs
The people back then were ideological true believers in capitalism fighting an ideological war against communism.
1991 broke the machine. They won. They believed they won. And they never continued the battle. The people who were competent true believers were not succeeded by people like themselves.
Then 9/11 happened and the decline has been in motion ever since.
I’m actually… Kind of glad to be around to see this utter dumpster fire of a trainwreck? Is this what hope (no shortage of hope tbf) shadenfreude feels like??
If the empire can go down in as pathetic and ridiculous of a spiral (with as little human suffering involved) all the better if you ask me. Still hate everyone involved (because they’re ghouls no one should support) but I almost feel I’m… becoming halfways hopeful of Elon (not as a person, but as a dumpster fire to be watched from afar while holding ones’ nose) seeing this absolute bullshit? If his narcissist-divorcee online malding leads to the death of NATO this will be priceless.
If you ask me, if the empire can go in as humiliating a way as possible, that even those reactionaries looking to the ““good old”” (shit-coated) days of empire cannot do so with a straight face- that every bit of imperialist vanity is uprooted and demolished right down to even its origins - well that’ll be pretty sweet. Though then, maybe I also just have issues (it’s definitely at least partly the latter, i exist even irl at least partially in a state of shitpost/semi-ironic nonsense brain humor)
not directing this at you, more just saying since it was brought up: that movie is classist as fuck. it blames all the world’s problems on supposedly dumb poor people having a bunch of kids. it doesn’t do anything to examine the social or economic conditions that cause that, and it acts like all these upper middle class people could have saved us all if we weren’t all so dumb and poor. i like mike judge’s work (im a huge KOTF fan) but i’ve always took issue with the framing of that movie. we got to idiocracy because a bunch of white upper middle class people are racist fucking idiots. not because of poor people.
I absolutely agree. Though I always imagined that the blame was on capitalist-fascists rulers who molded society and economic conditions that way, and that future is the result of their extreme greed and hubris. I honestly never thought the blame was on the people.
“Twitter isn’t real life!”
Twitter drama destroys the western bloc
“Oh”
NATO disbanding due to twitter shenanigans would be legitly the funniest and best thing internet ever did.
it would also turned Viacheslav Molotov grave into very effective power source with how fast would he spin inside.
We can ban X AND get kicked out of NATO? This is the greatest deal in the history of deals
Are they stupid? The whole point of the west funding Ukraine is so they have to do exorbitant loan repayments for the next 100 years. Can’t even imperialism right.
This is why I often think Hillary would’ve been worse for the world than Trump in 2016. She knows the theory and mechanisms of the levers of power. While Trump is just a conman that’s lost his mind, and his ilk have all drank the idealist Kool-Aid of Koch and Federalist propaganda. They think they can just strongman vibe the world into submission.
I think that’s largely true, but a Trump admin is also very risky. Clinton and Biden know that they’re not actually supposed to start a war with China, and Trump doesn’t.
Right, but a US at war with China is a US that’s shooting itself in the foot. Long term, I think that would still work out better for the world. With the caveat of nukes being off the table, of course.
BRICS is changing the game and, while I hope the US takes too long to do anything about it, I strongly suspect it’s too late anyway. Anything that is attempted, at this point, will only speed things along, imho. Capital has gone nation-less and the MiC’s tech manufacturing is reliant on the global supply chain which has China at its heart.
