Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent daring rebuke of European censorship at the Munich Security Conference has been called Churchillian – and compared to JFK’s landmark “I am a Berliner” speech at the Berlin Wall.

Others have likened it to Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” speech, and Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech.

Not that European officials appreciated Vance’s pointed remarks much.

“I think it was me and, like, two other people in the whole place clapping,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, who was there, laughs about the crowd’s reaction.

“I get that they don’t want to hear it, but you can’t proclaim to be some paragon of democracy and then jail people for saying things that you think are offensive, or people praying outside of an abortion clinic silently – not bothering anybody, and thrown in jail for that.

“Spare me the lectures about you being a real democracy. So, I think he was right to point out these free speech violations and how they’re not honoring what it really means to be a free and open society. I thought it was a great speech.”

In an exclusive interview with The Heartlander Thursday, Schmitt dished on his experience at the historic event, how Europe is handling the Trump agenda, and how his Democrat colleagues are doing so here at home.

Europe is undoubtedly experiencing something akin to whiplash from the dizzying implementation of Trump’s America-centered foreign policy reforms.

“Well, I think they’ve been used to people telling them what they want to hear and not telling the truth,” Schmitt says, “which is why I went over there – to tell them that it’s time for them to buck up. 

“The United States has subsidized their social welfare programs for far too long. They need to provide for their own defense. They need to include Hawaii and Guam in Article 5 protections, which they have not done. 

“And so, the relationship is out of balance. And I don’t think they like hearing that, but it’s the truth. I think they are coming to a realization that their industrial base has been diminished through crazy environmental policies. They can’t make things anymore over there. 

“Look, we’re dealing with some similar issues here, but we’re in a much better position than they are. We need to improve our industrial base, too, that’s been atrophied because of this globalist agenda. But Europe is a little bit still in denial, so I think President Trump is ushering in a new wave of realism in this country, where we view our foreign policy under the lens of what’s good for America.

“And we can’t be everywhere around the world all the time, solving every problem as the world’s policeman. If there was a time for that, that time is over. Europe kind of likes that ’cause they don’t have to spend money to go do that, but it’s not good. That’s not fair to taxpayers here.”

Democrats acting ‘between infant and toddler’

Neither have Democrats back in Washington, D.C., adjusted to Trump’s taxpayer-first domestic agenda, best exemplified by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its stunning revelations of waste and fraud in the federal budget under the Biden administration.

Democrats are holding near-daily protests – actually defending the bloated bureaucracy.

Are Schmitt’s Democrat colleagues on the Hill any more accepting of the historic cost-cutting in private?

“No,” Schmitt answers. “I would put the age-appropriateness of the response somewhere between 3 and 4 years old – between infant and toddler. They’re being huge babies.

“They don’t know what to do. They got spanked in November. They don’t have a leader. They fight for Guatemalan sex changes. They’re really lost. And I don’t actually think they’ve hit rock bottom yet, because they don’t really know what to fight for and what to fight against. So, they’re just fighting against everything, and they look ridiculous.”

Are the Democrats’ tantrums against Musk and DOGE having any effect?

Not at all, Schmitt says – comparing their impact to the John Belushi character’s 0.0 grade point average in the comedy Animal House.

“Many of them are paid activists that come here, and this is their gig,” Schmitt says of the perpetual protestors.

“Look, every American’s got the right to speak their mind and petition Congress. But they’re not in step with where real people are at. People hate the idea that they work hard every day, and they struggle to make ends meet or to send their kid to a certain school or to go on vacation or buy furniture for their living room – whatever it is that people want to spend their hard-earned money on – and then they see it wasted on, you know, DEI programming in Burma.

“It’s an insult, and the Democrats are defending all of that. 

“And so, I think this is a fight we should welcome. Let them defend this stuff and we’ll wear the white hat as reformers.”

Zelensky needs to show ‘a little more gratitude’

As for the war in Ukraine, over which U.S. negotiators have engaged the Russians in peace talks for the first time since the fighting began, Trump has shocked many by publicly dissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky had argued Trump was living in a Russian disinformation bubble. Trump responded by calling him a dictator and ineffective, unpopular leader.

Is that a good strategy on Trump’s part?

For his part, Schmitt is blaming Zelensky – not Trump.

“I think Zelensky’s getting some really bad advice, to be critical of President Trump when he’s trying to end a war that’s killed over 100,000 Ukrainians, to be conservative. 

“President Trump’s literally the only person on the planet that can deliver peace, and [Zelensky] is talking about President Trump listening to disinformation and misinformation and doesn’t understand. 

“You know, [Zelensky] doesn’t have a whole lot of leverage, if it wasn’t for the United States trying to broker peace right now. So, I think he ought to have a little more gratitude for that. I’m confident President Trump is going to be able to deliver it. He campaigned on it. He wants to do it. 

“Within the first month of his presidency, he’s got a team with Secretary of State Rubio and Steve Witkoff, Gen. Kellogg, they’re all working hard to get this done, and I think that’s a good thing. We should welcome peace.  

“Now, I guess I’m old enough to remember when Democrats and liberals believed in free speech and peace, but evidently now they’re the party of war and censorship.”