Vance started as a smooth and adaptable interviewee in 2016, calmly explaining Trump’s appeal for befuddled liberals while promoting his autobiography “Hillbilly Elegy.” Yet he soon MAGA-morphed into a pugnacious Trump surrogate in every forum — on Fox News, off the Senate floor, on the campaign stump.
As vice president, he’d likely add Europe to that list.
During the Trump years (version 1.0), Mike Pence gradually became the face of Trumpism abroad, regularly getting shipped to Europe to finger-wag at America’s allies. He was also there, presumably, to mop up the tepid applause and swift rebuttals that Trump despised.
But whereas Pence, despite his radio host background, was a sedate, stiff presence at the overseas podium, Vance’s TV savviness would likely bring a more animated, voluble version of Transatlantic Trumpism to Europe.
“I think he agrees with what I’m going to say,” Vance began as he took the mic in Munich earlier this year — the “he,” of course, being Donald Trump, and an early signal of how Vance may translate Trump as his overseas envoy.
“There’s a fundamental issue here that Europe really has to wake up to,” Vance said, insisting his remarks were meant “in the spirit of friendship, not in the spirit of criticism” because “I don’t think that we should abandon Europe.”
