U.S. Vice President JD Vance issued one of the administration’s strongest critiques yet of European speech-restriction laws, arguing that a genuine alliance cannot exist where fundamental values diverge.

Speaking about a series of arrests and legal actions in Europe over online expression, Vance said that the United States cannot be expected to defend partners who punish their own citizens for dissent.

He raised the issue plainly: if an American taxpayer sees an ally jail someone in Germany for what authorities deem a "mean tweet," support for that alliance will erode.

Vance stressed that America’s partnership with Europe is built on shared principles—open debate, democratic resilience, and trust in the public.

When those principles are violated, he said, the moral foundation of cooperation begins to fracture.

Vance cited examples he sees as incompatible with democratic values: prosecuting individuals for advocating stricter border policies, cancelling an election outcome in Romania after disliking the result, and suppressing domestic criticism through censorship laws.

Such measures, he argued, reveal a deeper anxiety within some European institutions—an unwillingness to let their own citizens speak freely.

The vice president emphasized that President Donald Trump views European nations as genuine friends, but friendship, he said, must rest on mutual respect and shared convictions.

For the United States, that includes defending open discourse rather than criminalizing it.

Vance’s remarks extended far beyond the traditional questions about NATO obligations, pointing instead to principle: alliances endure not through bureaucracy, but through honest alignment of values.