Europe’s ‘Destructive Moral Ideas’ Could Jeopardize Nuclear Powers, JD Vance Says

December 27, 2025
 EurActiv
By Magnus Lund Nielsen

(EurActiv) — Vice-President JD Vance warned on Friday that France and the United Kingdom could pose a future security risk to the US if what he called “Islamist-adjacent” ideas were to gain political influence.

Speaking in an interview with UK-based online outlet UnHerd, Vance argued that the backlash over immigration has left Europe without “a very good sense of itself”.

There are “Islamist-aligned or Islamist-adjacent people who hold office in European countries right now,” he added, without specifying who exactly he referred to.

For this reason, it is “absolutely” possible to see Islamist-adjacent views rise to power in a European nuclear power, like Paris or London, in 15 years.

Vance said the issue was of direct concern to Washington because France and the UK are nuclear powers. “If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the US.”

Washington will have “to have certain moral conversations with Europe”.

Vance, notably, did not mention Pakistan, another nuclear power and a majority-Muslim country, with which the US enjoys some bilateral relations.

Earlier this month, the US Trump administration released its new security strategy, painting a dire picture of Europe’s political and economic trajectory.

The document emphasised a US ambition to restore “European greatness” to a continent Washington said is facing economic decline and the “stark prospect of civilisational erasure”, sparking wide pushback from European capitals.