When images of JD Vance and his wife waving American flags appeared on a large screen at the Winter Olympics’ opening ceremony, some in the crowd booed. Asked about this, Kaja Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister who is now the European Union’s top diplomat, replied, “We have heard a lot of not-so-nice words from the United States regarding Europe. . . . Our public also has a pride, a European pride.” Vance’s boss is indeed extremely unpopular across the Atlantic — and a conflict over an ICE unit’s presence in Milan did not help. No matter that the unit, Homeland Security Investigations, has nothing to do with deportations and regularly sends officers to international events for security purposes.
On the brighter side, the U.S. Olympic team was well received. And Vance is hardly the only American politician to be at the wrong end of European jeering. In 1985, the 40th anniversary of the Allies’ victory in Europe — a victory, if I recall correctly, in which the U.S. played a part — President Reagan spoke to the European Parliament — and was heckled and booed by a noisy minority of its members.
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