A “disgrace.” A “fool” whose “insult” was disrespectful to veterans. “JD Dunce.” These were some of the headlines featured in Britain’s tabloid newspapers on Wednesday after U.S. Vice President JD Vance remarked that an economic agreement with Ukraine offered a “better security guarantee” for a potential peace settlement with Russia “than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t been involved in a war for 30 or 40 years.”
Vance expressed these views during a Monday evening interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, following commitments from Britain and France to contribute troops to a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. Vance has subsequently maintained that he did not “even mention the U.K. or France,” asserting that both nations had “bravely fought alongside the U.S. over the last 20 years and prior.”
He labeled it as “absurdly dishonest” to assert he disrespected either country or its armed forces.
However, the vice president did not clarify which “random” nation or nations he was referencing during his Fox News interview, and no other nations have publicly declared intentions to deploy troops to Ukraine.
His remarks triggered a strong backlash in Britain and France, with opposition leaders and veterans in both nations claiming he was dishonoring the hundreds of troops who lost their lives fighting alongside U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“JD Vance is mistaken. Mistaken, mistaken, mistaken,” stated Nigel Farage, leader of the right-leaning Reform U.K., an anti-immigration opposition party. Farage, a long-time supporter of President Donald Trump, added, “We stood with America throughout those 20 years, making precisely the same contribution.”
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