One of the most enduring quotes attributed to Winston Churchill involves having enemies.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life,” is how the Churchill quote is often presented.
After some intra-party backlash against Vice President J.D. Vance, it appears that Donald Trump Jr. echoes Churchill’s sentiments.
To wit, Vance was one of the big names involved in the Signal messaging app controversy that erupted this week.
(Others involved in the breached text chain include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.)
For the unaware, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to a group message on Signal discussing military action against Houthi terrorists in Yemen by a Waltz staffer — a text chain Goldberg obviously shouldn’t have been a part of.
The Atlantic went ahead and published the full remarks of that text chain on Wednesday, and one of the revelations of the text chain was that Vance had some reservations about the aforementioned military action.
In short, Vance felt that the Houthis were more of a European problem than an American problem, a stance that the vice president has actually been incredibly consistent on when it comes to other geopolitical issues in the region.
Well, according to a blistering Thursday report from Jewish Insider, members of the GOP are apparently bristling at the fact that Vance strongly prefers to keep America focused on American issues, first and foremost.
Do you agree with J.D. Vance on foreign policy?
The Insider reported that some GOP lawmakers “have felt that Vance’s claim that the endeavor was largely about ‘bailing Europe out again’ was an admission that he does not see the Houthis as a significant threat to U.S. national security despite the militant group having exploded a drone meters from the U.S. Embassy Branch Office in Tel Aviv in July and it being responsible for ongoing attacks on U.S. military vessels and allies.”
“A number of Republican senators are very concerned about [his foreign policy views],” an anonymous GOP senator told the Insider. “They think it’s quite revealing. It reveals a mindset that I’m sure is perplexing to our European allies.”
Another anonymous quote called Vance’s mindset “very disappointing.”
That source added a shot at former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, as well: “It was shocking to me that he didn’t see the need to strike back when they struck our naval vessels. That’s not a British problem or a European problem. Frankly, them striking our friends in Israel is more than enough justification. It’s the Tucker Carlson view of how to use military power.”
While Vance didn’t respond to the Insider for comment, Donald Trump Jr. certainly did, and he didn’t hold back when it came to lambasting these anonymous sources.
“These seven cowardly neocons attacking J.D. anonymously are genuine p*****s. If they really feel this way, then they should at least be man enough to put their names to these quotes,” Trump Jr. told the outlet via statement. “The fact that they are too cowardly to do that is exactly why I’m so happy that these RINOs are a dying breed in our party — whether they realize it or not.”
(It’s unclear where Trump Jr. got the “seven” figure from, as the Insider did not give a specific number of respondents.)
Jewish Insider did note that a number of GOP senators have publicly defended Vance’s comments, as well.
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