President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a contentious exchange at the White House in February. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
"He's someone who's not going to just sit by and stand back like Mike Pence did a lot of the times," a GOP source familiar with Trump’s "America First" agenda told Fox News Digital on Thursday. "He's really taking the charge."
Vance and second lady Usha Vance, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, are poised to visit Pituffik Space Base in Greenland Friday, the Department of Defense’s northernmost military installation that houses Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group to conduct missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations.
Vance’s departure from his predecessors and involvement in the foreign policy theater stems from a generational shift following the Global War on Terror, according to Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida.
While former vice presidents Mike Pence and Joe Biden had no direct military experience, that’s not the case for the current cohort of foreign policy leaders at the White House.
Vance, who served for four years in the Marine Corps and completed a deployment to Iraq, and Waltz, a former Army Green Beret who served four deployments to Afghanistan, are now calling the shots on foreign policy initiatives for the White House’s agenda.
"Like myself, Mike Waltz, and others, he served in the Global War on Terror and saw firsthand the damage of bad foreign policy," Mast, a combat veteran who lost both his legs during a deployment to Afghanistan, said in a Thursday statement to Fox News Digital. "Unlike other vice presidents, JD’s not afraid to go out there and talk about what he cares about — and what he cares about is putting America First."
VANCE EVISCERATES ‘SOVIET’-STYLE EUROPEAN CENSORSHIP IN ADDRESS TO MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE
Vice President JD Vance swore in Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense on Jan. 25, 2025. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP)
Mast also pointed out how European countries are now vowing to bolster defense spending as an example of Vance's leadership. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put forth an $841 billion proposal March 4 for European Union nations to enhance defense spending.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged in February to boost his country's defense spending to 2.5% of its gross domestic value. That is an increase from the 2.3% the U.K. currently spends, and amounts to a nearly $17 billion increase.
As a result, Mast said that Vance’s approach is proving successful in lighting a fire under European allies to take action.
"He wants to make sure America is not being taken advantage of, or being taken for granted," Mast said. "We need a Europe that steps up and is an equal partner, because if you are not a partner, then you are a dependent. Europe needs to hear this tough talk, and it's already working."
Vance’s tough stance on Europe emerged recently when messages from a group chat discussing strikes against Yemen leaked on Monday, according to a report from the Atlantic.
The group chat, which included White House officials like Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, outlined plans to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Vance initially remained skeptical of the strikes, and in one message, he said: "I just hate bailing out the Europeans again."
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President Donald Trump first proposed purchasing Greenland in 2019 during his first term. (Getty Images)
While it’s unclear whether the Trump administration will successfully take over Greenland, Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, predicted that Vance’s understanding of Trump’s America First agenda will shine through during the vice president’s trip to Greenland once again.
"JD Vance was a great messenger for that agenda in the Oval Office exchange with Zelensky, in his speech in Munich, and I expect we’ll see it again during his trip to Greenland," Banks said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Charles Creitz contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vance-solidifies-dominance-driving-european-foreign-policy-ahead-greenland-trip