JD Vance - Donald Trump's Offender in Chief: All the countries US Vice President has bad-mouthed including China, France, UK and Denmark

Donald Trump's Vice President - JD Vance - has carved out something of a unique role for himself in what is a unique administration, but it's not, perhaps, what he might have necessarily envisaged. For Vance has become something of an offender in chief - particularly where foreign countries are concerned.

Vance, who shot to national fame after the release of his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which detailed a harrowing childhood in small-town Appalachia. He established a reputation as a common sense speaker with a unique insight into life in poor America. He was even handed a column in the New York Times.

Long backed by controversial Republican party stalwart Peter Theil, it wasn't long before the Yale Law School graduate took the path of politics, settling on a run for the Ohio Senate seat vacated by fellow Republican Rob Portman. He won the seat - just - in what was considered an underperformance for the Republican candidate, defeating Democrat Tim Ryan with 53% of the vote, against 47%.

However, his time in the Senate would not be long. Taking on the seat on January 3, 2023, he resigned on January 10, 2025, ahead of being sworn in as vice president of the United States.

JD Vance's foreign relations gaffes

Post-election, the vice president's tendency to attract headlines through controversial statements has continued unabated. On Tuesday (April 8) Beijing hit back after Vance, referred to “Chinese peasants” in an interview defending Donald Trump’s tariffs. He told Fox News: “What has the globalist economy gotten the United States of America?

"And the answer is, fundamentally, it’s based on two principles – incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us. To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

In response spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, Lin Jian, said: “It’s both astonishing and lamentable to hear this vice-president make such ignorant and disrespectful remarks.” The foreign ministry added: “Pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right way to deal with China.”

And it’s not just China Vance has been upsetting. He also seems to have been handed responsibility for stoking bad blood with the Danish over Greenland, which President Trump has said he wants to assume control of. Vance has repeatedly said the Danes have "not done a good job" overseeing the territory.

The effect of such remarks was clear to see when, last month, a visit to Greenland initially planned for just his wife, Usha Chilukuri, became controversial. Amid reports officials could find no one willing to meet the second lady during her trip, Vance himself said he too would make the journey to Europe.

However, while there, the pair did not leave the US' remote Pituffik Space Base, a missile defence facility some 930 miles (1,500km) from the capital, Nuuk. The lack of an audience, however, didn't stop him offending the nation once again, when he said: "Our message to Denmark is very simple; You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have under-invested in the people of Greenland and you have under-invested in the security of this incredible, beautiful landmass."

The comments were slammed by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who told the BBC: "For many years we have stood side by side with the Americans in very difficult situations. Therefore, it is not an accurate way for the vice-president to refer to Denmark."

"We are ready – day and night – to co-operate with the Americans," she added. "A co-operation that must be based on the necessary international rules of the game."

Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said Vance's visit showed "a lack of respect for the Greenlandic people".

Meanwhile, during a trip to the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance proceeded to offend the entire continent of Europe by referencing "the threat from within" as the largest threat to security, "not Russia, not China". The speech, widely seen as a turning point in relations between the US and Europe, was merely the first step in Vance's anti-European crusade.

When Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House to - reportedly - sign a minerals deal with President Trump, an Oval Office press conference descended into farce when the American leaders attacked the European leader. Vance told Zelenskyy it was "disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.

“Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict."

He later asked Zelenskyy if he had even said thank you to the president - which Zelenskyy had, numerous times - and claimed he knew about the Ukraine situation as he had "watched and seen the stories".

With Europe still in his sights, Vance then took it upon himself to offend US allies (particularly the UK and France) when, in an interview with Fox News, he said US involvement in the Ukrainian economy was a "better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years".

His remarks prompted outrage in the UK and France, as well as other European nations, who have seen troops killed in conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan - fighting alongside American soldiers. He backtracked, noting he didn't "even mention the UK or France", who he said had "fought bravely alongside the US".

However, Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said it was "deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice" such as that of UK troops, while fellow Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty, a former British Army officer, said the "disrespect shown by the new US vice-president to the sacrifices of our service personnel is unacceptable".

But his distaste for all things European did not end there. A chat among US administration officials on the messaging app Signal, which detailed an American attack on Houthi militants in Yemen, revealed a Vance-led attack on Europe. In reference to the attack, aimed at protecting shipping lanes, the vice president said: "I just hate bailing Europe out again."

His comments were welcomed by US secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, who responded: "VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC."