JD Vance: Europe is engaging in civilisational suicide
Taking particular issue with Germany, which he has criticised before, he said some European nations were both 'unable' and 'unwilling' to stem the flow of migration.
Mr Vance's comments are the latest in which the vice president has framed European values and policies as being at-odds with those held by the Trump administration, while also touching on issues that have driven support for European hard-Right parties.
'The Europeans annoy me sometimes. Yes, I disagree with them on certain issues,' he said in an interview with Fox News.
The 40-year-old said the idea of Western civilisation has its roots in Europe and led to the founding of the US, but added: 'Europe is at risk of engaging in civilisational suicide.'
'If you have a country like Germany, where you have another few million immigrants come in from countries that are totally culturally incompatible with Germany, then it doesn't matter what I think about Europe,' he continued.
'Germany will have killed itself, and I hope they don't do that, because I love Germany and I want Germany to thrive.'
The interview with Mr Vance came as Donald Trump completed a five-day trip to Scotland, where he met with Sir Keir Starmer.
The US president told the Prime Minister he would have a better chance of holding back the threat posed by Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party if he made it a priority to lower taxes and tackle immigration.
'Keep people safe and with money in their pockets and you win elections,' said Mr Trump
Mr Trump was re-elected with a vow to place a crack-down on illegal immigration at the centre of his second term's work.
Since his election victory, he has effectively shut the US's southern border with Mexico and ordered the round-up of undocumented migrants and deporting them.
In cities such as Los Angeles, he sent in the National Guard and US Marines to support immigration agents carrying out the round-ups.
At the same time community leaders and activists say the vast majority of those being detained are not hardened criminals as Mr Trump has claimed but day labourers and farmers
In Britain, figures such as Mr Farage have repeatedly accused Sir Keir of failing to follow a similar course.
Following an unprecedented success for Mr Farage's party in local elections in May, Sir Keir promised a major crackdown over the next four years saying Britain risked becoming 'an island of strangers'.
'Make no mistake, this plan means migration will fall. That is a promise,' Sir Keir said. 'If we do need to take further steps... then mark my words, we will.'
'Free speech across Europe is in retreat'
The comments of Mr Vance echo what he said in February in a speech at the Munich Security Conference.
He accused some countries of limiting free speech, citing Adam Smith-Connor, a British pro-life campaigner who was convicted for breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic.
'Free speech in Britain and across Europe was in retreat,' he said at the time, before going on to back Germany's Alternative für Deutschland party that has been classified as an extremist group by the German government.
The Munich address was viewed by many European countries as the moment America signalled it was willing to put an end to long-standing trade and security arrangements, agreed at the end of the Second World War.
Olaf Scholz, the then German chancellor, criticised Mr Vance and accused him of trying to interfere in his country's election. 'That is not done, certainly not among friends and allies,' he said.
When Sir Keir met with Mr Trump and the vice president in the Oval Office earlier this year, he pushed back at the criticism, saying 'We've had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that.'
Mr Vance has been widely tipped to be among those likely to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. Other hopefuls include Marco Rubio, the current secretary of state, who ran against Mr Trump in 2016 and lost badly.
Asked about who he viewed as a potential successor, Mr Trump told NBC News in May that there were several contenders.
'I think [Vance is] a fantastic, brilliant guy,' he said. 'Marco [Rubio] is great. There's a lot of them that are great. I also see tremendous unity. But certainly you would say that somebody's the VP, if that person is outstanding, I guess that person would have an advantage.'
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