A German diplomat once best known for laughing at Donald Trump’s warning that Germany’s dependence on Russian energy would become a problem was unable to finish his speech at the Munich Security Conference as he apparently found the implications of emissary JD Vance’s message from the Trump White House too upsetting.
Top German diplomat Christoph Heusgen, infamous for being one of the group of chuckling Germans laughing off Donald Trump at a 2018 United Nations General Assembly broke down in tears on the podium at the Munich Security Conference as he gave the closing speech of the three-day event. Heusgen spoke in a conscious repudiation of U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s Friday speech, a strongly worded warning from the Trump White House that change is on the way and the present European norm of anti-democratic “Soviet” practices and forced mass migration would no longer be accepted.
Watch: Vance Torched The European Elite Face-to-Face and They Absolutely Hated It https://t.co/AidSSEQ32d
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 14, 2025
Heusgen’s speech was a classic of the long-20th-century German trueism that “there is no alternative”, as Heusgen insisted the only option was to ignore Trump, double down, and keep going. Heusgen, once Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign and security policy advisor and then ambassador to the United Nations, said in English at the opening of his address:
After the speech of Vice President Vance on Friday we have to fear that our common value base is not that common any more. I am very grateful to all those European politicians that spoke out and reaffirmed the values and principles they are defending…
Heusgen circled back to this rejection of the Trump-Vance American world view at the end of the speech, and he said:
It is clear that our rules-based international order is under pressure. It is my strong belief that this more multipolar world needs to be based on a single set of norms and principles, on the UN charter, and on the universal declaration of human rights. This order is easy to disrupt, it is easy to destroy, but it is much harder to rebuild.
So let’s stick to these values, let us not reinvent them, but focus on strengthening their consistent application. Let me conclude, and this becomes difficult…
At this point, the giant of the German diplomatic community broke down in tears.
Heusgen having gone around the floor hugging his colleagues, apparently for emotional support, President of the MSC Foundation Council Wolfgang Ischinger took over proceedings and congratulated Heusgen on his time as chairman. Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is now taking over the role.
He particularly highlighted Heusgen’s efforts to make the MSC more “diverse”, and for transforming its purpose from being one focussing on preventing war in Europe, and the transatlantic relationship, to one that embraces the “global south” and world security.
Heusgen seems to have a track record with emotional regulation at diplomatic events. Images of him laughing alongside Germany’s then foreign minister Heiko Maas were beamed around the world in 2018 as they treated President Donald Trump’s warnings then, years before Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine, that Germany’s dependence on Russian gas would make Europe vulnerable.
