WASHINGTON—Vice President JD Vance told Breitbart News during an exclusive interview at the White House on Tuesday that President Donald Trump recognizes his ability to “actually just do things” as president in ways that traditional politicians have not.
Breitbart News caught up with Vance in his West Wing office for a wide-ranging interview, including about America’s role on the world stage since the administration took over and Vance’s upcoming trip to Europe next week. He emphasized that Trump has “a bias towards willful action to the presidency” that enables him to set and accomplish goals traditional politicians are unable to achieve when asked about the topics of Canada, Mexico, and Panama.
“I think one of the things President Trump brings to the table is a recognition that you can actually just do things,” Vance said. “When the bureaucrats, or the career politicians, or the people who just have lived in D.C. for 30-40 years say, ‘Well, you can’t do that,’ I think President Trump’s response is, ‘Well, why? Why can’t I just do it? I’m the president of the United States,’ And I think because he takes such a bias towards willful action to the presidency, there’s just a lot of stuff that traditional or conventional politicians wouldn’t have got done that he’s willing to do.”
“So you look at Panama, and you say, ‘Okay, well, there is a treaty obligation here. Are the Panamanians meeting it? And if the answer is no, then what can we do to make sure they actually meet their obligations?’” he continued. “Or if the Mexicans aren’t doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl and aren’t doing enough to stop cartel activity, rather than just sending a diplomat down there to whine at them, what if we actually forced them to suffer some consequences unless they did what we needed them to do for our own security? And, again, I think it’s just a fundamentally transformative approach to government where you say, ‘I have a goal in mind, I’m going to go accomplish that goal’ rather than, ‘I have a goal in mind, what are the 100 reasons why I can’t do what I think I should do?’”
When asked if the world has craved leadership from America on the global stage–considering a Qatari senior official told Breitbart News, “We want the Middle East to be great again, and we can do that by working together with President Trump”–Vance noted an interesting dynamic where many nations are happy with Trump’s return to the world stage, but some are “pissed off.”
“Yeah, it’s interesting,” Vance said. “I think most countries are very happy with it. Some countries are pissed off because they don’t appreciate that the gravy train is officially over. I think, particularly, the Gulf States are really ready to enter a new period of economic development, of cooperation. They don’t want to be stuck in the past, where their entire societies are built around fighting with Christians and Jews. They actually want new economic development. They want new investment. They want to be part of, like, the international community. And, yeah, I think America’s leadership has made that possible in a way that Biden’s leadership just made it impossible.”
As the administration revamps America’s role in the world under the newly sworn-in president’s leadership, Vance will travel to Europe next week for the AI Action Summit in Paris and the Munich Security Conference in Germany. He said he plans to meet privately with world leaders at the AI Action Summit to discuss winding down the Russia-Ukraine war, when asked about the message he would bring to Europe.
“So I don’t want to reveal everything, of course. At the AI Summit, the main reason I’m going is actually to have some private conversations with the world leaders who are also going to be there,” Vance detailed. “I think there’s a lot that some of the leaders who are present at the AI summit could do to, frankly — bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, help us diplomatically there — and so we’re going to be focused on those meetings in France.”
“And then I was at the Munich Security Conference last year as a United States senator, and I brought a message that NATO needs to really step up and take more control over their own security. I’m going to talk a little bit about that,” he added. “I’m also going to talk about the fact that European values, Western values, include things like free speech and respect for dissented voices, and, unfortunately, you’ve seen in Europe a really significant, and I think, frankly, an evil trend towards censorship. And you hear a lot about America’s moral leadership, one of the things that America’s moral leadership is going to be about during President Trump’s term is free speech. We want people to be able to speak their minds, and we believe that free and open debate is actually a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of our European friends have gone the wrong direction there.”