Good feeling's gone

US Vice President JD Vance's 19-minute address at the Munich Security Conference this past Friday sent shockwaves through European diplomatic circles and most of the West's non-MAGA-aligned press: journalists and editorial boards that have retained some historical memory past, say, the US invasion of Iraq. My reading was that the Trump Administration's position of devolving US security guarantees towards Europe (as suggested by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's address earlier the same day) was tied, if one takes Vance at his word, to Europe's alleged betrayal of democratic values and freedom of speech. Vance also sprinkled his remarks with subtle support for the views of Europe's far right political parties, Germany's in particular.

Now it takes serious sack for the deputy of a US president who encouraged the storming of the US Capitol in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election to call Europe out for being undemocratic. Leaving aside the impertinence of Vance's remarks, I was also struck by his tone. For a Valentine's Day speech to a room full of allies, it could hardly be less loving. In the above still image, Vance is about to make a tasteless joke comparing the "scolding" of Greta Thunberg during Trump's first administration to the libertarian ravings (and impassioned Nazi salute) of Elon Musk at the dawn of Trump's second. Really the photo's caption might as well read "Friends, fuck you." Harsh of me perhaps but I'm not exactly alone in that reading (them there's five links folks, not just two).

Depending on your nationality, paymasters or political leanings, Vance's address can land, in the ear, as unacceptable interference (the German defense minister's reaction), a blunt berating, or an overdue "wake-up call". That last Fox News clip I found particularly grating, for the – to my mind – obscene levels of journalistic bias and / or ignorance displayed in the commentary of its host, Laura Ingraham, who, considering her credentials, should know better. [Edit, Feb. 19th: Displaying more intelligence and sensitivity, Farah Stockman, who has written a well-researched account of the hollowing out of the US's manufacturing sector, offered this opinion in today's New York Times, citing the creeping sense of betrayal in European capitals.]

Whatever your interpretation, the speeches by the US Vice President and US Secretary of Defence at the 2025 Munich Security Conference leave little doubt that, with Trump in firm control of the entire US government owing to the GOP's majorties in both houses of Congress and the overwhelmingly conservative nature of the judges in the US's federal courts, liberalism is on the decline, NATO is coming apart, and, if this sort of talk persists and is backed up by action in the months to come, Europe and the US are, well, really they are no longer friends [edit, Mar. 7th: intended perhaps for those still holding out hope, this editorial by former French President François Hollande hammers the point home. See also the video of French Senator Claude Malhuret's searing March 4th address, linked at the bottom of this post].

This is all very good news for Vladimir Putin, rather less than good news for Ukraine [edit, Mar. 3rd: which, in light of Marco Rubio's meeting with a Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia, followed by Trump and Vance browbeating Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, is being thrown under a bus], along with many much less vulnerable souls whose identities, aspirations and livelihoods are bound up with the idea of a united, liberal Western political and diplomatic system. That crowd includes me. Since my thirtieth birthday I've proudly held two passports: Italian and American, and I've never felt much tension or difficulty in weaving those two identities together. What differences there were in the mores and customs of my two "sides" was mostly endearing, at times edifying, and largely harmless. On core values, on the promotion of a rules-based constitutional order and military alliance spanning the Atlantic and in defense of individual liberty and (crucially, but ever less so in the US) individual dignity, the imperfect but evolving partnership between North America and most of Europe gave me a sense of integration, security, and hope for the future. But Vance's Valentine's Day address, coming on heels Pete Hegseth's announcement that the US military presence in Europe will not last "forever", not to mention President Trump's recent intimations of a Greenland-grab or an annexation of Canada, points distinctly to a parting of ways.

So be it, I suppose, if all that's what is to be. Tremble again for Ukraine and soon also perhaps for Moldova, Romania, Estonia and the rest of the Baltics, dare I say Poland too? Perhaps I'm being dramatic... but maybe not. Dialing it back to the personal, what then of those two "sides" of Alex / Alessandro? Yesterday I dug out my US Certificate of Naturalization, dated July 1993. It attests that, nearly 32 years ago, I "intend[ed] to reside in the United States when so required by the Naturalization Laws of the United States" and "had in all other respects complied with the applicable provisions of such laws" and "was entitled to be admitted to citizenship ... having taken the oath of allegiance". Let's take a look at that oath, which, I will note, is distinct from the Pledge of Allegiance I recited every morning alongside my American and non-American classmates from first through sixth grade, growning up in New York City. The US oath of allegiance is rather more incisive:

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

I took that oath. Yet I was able to continue to hold and, when traveling, present my Italian passport alongside my US one because Italy is one of a group of twenty or so European countries that do not require their citizens to renounce citizenship when those same citizens acquire US citizenship. This meant that, notwithstaning the letter of the above, I could, from July of 1993, think of myself as a dual citizen or "dual national". Again, given the relationship between "my" two nations, this didn't seem or feel at all odd to me. But this side of Vance's Valentine's volley I'm suddenly finding it less easy to hold, quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald, "two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, while still retaining the ability to function."

Postscript, February 19: I found this MSNBC interview with Representative Seth Moulton of Massachussetts (member of the House Armed Services Committee) somewhat reassuring, and a corrective to the Ingraham-Fox clip cited above. Congressman Moulton confirms the "absolute shock" and embarrassment he perceived in the audience and the aftermath to Vance's "condescending lecture", notably amongst his American colleagues, not just the European diplomats and military brass in attendance. On the other hand, the fact that Moulton repeatedly relates how his Republican colleagues in Congress appear to be "scared of Trump" (with the notable exception of Senate Armed Services Committee chair Roger Wicker) further highlights the authoritarian bent of the man in charge and the administration he leads. My feeling is that Germany's election can't come fast enough. My hope is for Europe to find its voice, and to have that voice be firm.

Post-postscript, February 20: One month exactly from Trump's inauguration the international press, in the guise of The Economist (hardly a platform for Marxists) is making it plain: the events of the past week portend Europe's nightmare. "Trump and Putin smash the post-war order" announces the headline, and, in the opening paragraph, readers are told "The implications for Europe’s security are grave, but they have yet to sink in to the continent’s leaders and people." Maybe so, but I've already taken the first steps towards renouncing my US citizenship. To my stateside friends who might decry this as the wrong moment for a left-leaning voter to leave the fold I'll point out that my US voting address is in California, which, thanks to the Electoral College, means my vote in presidential elections amounts to nil. And according to an email I received this morning from Democrats Abroad, there are designs afoot to effectively take that vote away anyway. The initiative, with a dash of Orwellian flair, is called the SAVE Act.

Laugh until you cry? For a still more chilling analysis of the unprecedented shape things are taking, here again is one of my favorite journalists Fintan O'Toole, writing in the New York Review. Comedy indeed.

A few more thoughts, March 3: I feel compelled to cite and share this 9-minute PBS NewsHour conversation between host Amna Nawaz, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart. It felt as if Brooks was speaking for me when he said, from minute 3:45, "Am I feeling grief? Am I feeling shock? Like I'm in a hallucination? But I just think shame... moral shame. It's a moral injury to see the country you love behave in this way." I'll add that I feel Vance showed himself to be even lesser a man and more ham-fisted a diplomat in the Oval Office yesterday than what we saw in Munich two weeks ago. And yet, maybe this is exactly what the EU needs right now.

The capper, March 7: Center-right French Senator Claude Malhuret's 8 ½ minute address  to his colleagues this past Tuesday has apparently "gone viral" (the version embedded in this Huff Post article includes English subtitles and, below that, a full English transcript-translation of the address). I found much to applaud in the speech, starting with its tone and style: direct, even urgent, yet articulate and level-headed. I enjoyed Malhuret's brief and dismissive skewering of Musk as a "ketamine-fueled jester". But there is a good deal of substance besides, and an impassioned show of support towards Ukraine and in particular the embattled Zelensky. Worth a watch. Even (indeed, especially) if you're for "America First".

Click or tap the image to hear the address in French. The Huff Post article linked to above has a version with subtitles.