The text-message debacle over the U.S. attacks on the Houthis is the latest example that Vice President Vance is the Trump team’s chief antagonist of Europe — both publicly and behind the scenes.

Why it matters: Vance’s private argument against the attacks, included in the texts among top U.S. officials that were revealed by The Atlantic, matched his recent pattern of public hawkishness toward European allies.

• “I think we are making a mistake,” Vance wrote in the Signal group with Cabinet secretaries and senior White House officials, arguing that the Houthis were more Europe’s problem than America’s.

In public, Vance’s combative remarks on issues such as defense spending and censorship have strained the alliance between Europe and the U.S.

• European diplomats, media and members of various parliaments have zeroed in on the vice president for criticism.

Zoom in: It’s unusual for a VP to become such a lightning rod on foreign policy — especially so early in a presidency.

• But the text discussion among U.S. officials before this week’s strikes shows the depth of Vance’s belief that America gives too much support to Europe — a continent Vance believes is lethargic and often run by corrupt elites.
• “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez,” Vance texted in the chat. “40 percent of European trade does.”

After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a case for the attacks, Vance responded: “If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”

• “I fully share your loathing of European free-loading,” Hegseth responded. “It’s PATHETIC.”

Zoom out: Vance’s texts echoed his public criticism of Europe during the first two months of the Trump administration.

• “Europe is at risk, I think, of engaging in civilizational suicide,” he told Fox News this month, arguing that too many European countries aren’t sufficiently limiting immigration.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance stunned European diplomats with a speech criticizing them for policies aimed at hate speech and disinformation that he argued imperiled free speech.

• “If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you, nor for that matter is there anything you can do for the American people,” he said.

One senior German diplomat was shocked that Vance visited the Dachau Nazi concentration camp — and then followed it by giving the Munich speech and meeting with the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

• “He didn’t seem to learn the right lesson from Dachau,” the diplomat said.

Vance also angered European leaders when he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this month that the U.S. economic pact with Ukraine was a better peace option than Ukraine being supported by “20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”

• After outrage from some in Britain and France, Vance clarified that he wasn’t talking about either country but that “there are many countries who are volunteering … support who have neither the battlefield experience nor the military equipment to do anything meaningful.”
• Vance’s team did not answer questions about which countries he was referring to.

The intrigue: Vance’s hardline stance on Europe goes beyond even what President Trump advocates.

• Vance’s views thrill some of the MAGA faithful, but he’s more ideological about his stances than the transactional Trump.
• In the text messages, Vance said of the planned bombings: “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.”

The backstory: Vance used to admire Europe and wrote in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” that “visiting England was a childhood dream.”

• But by the time he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 2022, his Euro-skepticism was clear.
• More recently, he has framed Europe’s power structure as part of the “transatlantic elite” that tried to stop Trump’s rise in the U.S.
• “The transatlantic elite have created so many institutions to silence their own people and to delegitimize the beliefs of the public,” he wrote on X in response to criticism of his Munich speech.

In February 2024, then-Sen. Vance also caused a stir when he appeared at the Munich conference.

• He said then that “the problem with Europe is that it doesn’t provide enough of a deterrence on its own, because it hasn’t taken the initiative in its own security. I think the American security blanket has allowed European security to atrophy.”
• “You win wars with weapons, and the West doesn’t make enough weapons.”