“This is a disaster for Ukraine.” Those are the words of one senior EU official today as Europe reacted to Donald Trump’s choice of Ohio senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.
While Europe was already panicked about a second Trump presidency and its implications for U.S. foreign policy, the addition of Vance to the GOP ticket has raised further questions about a potential new administration’s commitment to Ukraine and the transatlantic alliance.
Vance has made his views on Ukraine clear. In 2022, he told Steve Bannon in an interview “I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” In February 2024, when Vance made his first appearance at the Munich Security Conference, he told POLITICO that the U.S. needed to reassess its support for Ukraine and skipped a meeting with the Ukraine delegation and other senators.