Beware Billionaires Bearing Advice

Neither Elon Musk nor JD Vance have Germany's best interests at heart

So, I planned to be posting photos and anecdotes from my trip to Vienna. But - as with my article from our fall trip to Florence still languishing in my drafts folder - current events keep pulling me away.

With the Bundestag election so close, I feel I can’t just fiddle writing travelogues while two representatives from my homeland try to set fire to my new land.

Last week, U.S. Vice President JD Vance used his allotted time speaking at the Munich Security Conference to lecture European leaders for “abandoning” democracy and freedom of speech by refusing to normalize and work with the political far-right.

“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 that you can do for the American people who elected me and elected President Trump,” Vance told the conference.¹ “You need democratic mandates to accomplish anything of value in the coming years.”

After the meeting, he went further - snubbing current German Chanc…