JD Vance says US NATO support could be withdrawn if EU tries to regulate X

“Leader, I forget exactly what official was in the European Union, but I sent Elon this threatening letter that basically said, ‘We’re going to arrest you if you do Donald Trump,'” Vance said.

“What America should be saying is, if NATO wants us to continue to support them and NATO wants us to continue to be a good participant in this military alliance, why don’t you respect American values ​​and free speech?” he continued, adding that it was “crazy that we would support a military alliance if that military alliance is not going to be pro-freedom of speech.”

Vance appeared to be referring to a letter posted on X in August by Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market at the time.

Breton addressed the letter to Musk ahead of the X owner’s much-publicized interview with Trump, warning him not to amplify “harmful content.”

Breton wrote that Musk and X had an obligation to comply with EU law, ensuring freedom of expression and information, but ensuring that “all proportionate and effective mitigation measures are put in place with regard to the amplification of harmful content in relation to the relevant events”.

The EU Commission previously said in July that X failed to comply with the EU Digital Services Act on advertising transparency and in relation to its verified accounts policy.

Breton said the commission’s preliminary findings suggested X’s blue checks were “cheating users” and violating the DSA.

Responding to the findings on his social media platform, Musk said the European Commission had previously offered X “an illegal secret agreement”.

“If we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they wouldn’t fine us. The other platforms took the deal. X didn’t,” he added.

Despite Musk’s long-standing fight for free speech, he had previously suspended the X (then Twitter) accounts of several journalists who had covered or criticized him.

Business Insider has reached out to Vance’s representatives for comment.

Tensions between the US and NATO have been under the spotlight again in the run-up to the US elections in November.

Trump has long urged fellow NATO members to increase defense spending.

In February, the former president even suggested that the US might let Russia attack non-paying NATO countries, angering the White House.

NATO defense ministers agreed in 2006 to commit at least 2 percent of GDP to funding the alliance, but several countries, including Canada and Spain, have fallen below that level.

According to NATO estimates, Poland will be NATO’s biggest spender in 2024, allocating 4.12% of its GDP. Estonia ranks second with 3.43%, while the US is third with 3.38%.

For its part, NATO has acknowledged that there has been a historical imbalance between US military spending and that of non-US allies.

In July, a post on its website said: “The volume of US defense spending is about two-thirds of the Alliance’s defense spending as a whole.”

“However, this is not the amount that the United States contributes to the operational functioning of NATO, which is shared with all Allies according to the principle of common funding,” he added.