Vance champions 'beautiful alliance' with UK — but warns of 'dark path'

After meeting on Wednesday with Nigel Farage, the head of the Reform U.K. party that is now leading in the polls, Vice President JD Vance met with American troops at Royal Air Force Fairford in Gloucestershire, England.

A source familiar with the vice president's visit noted to Blaze News that "the U.S. Air Force operates RAF Fairford, and it is the USAF's only forward operating location in Europe. As such, it's our only European airfield used specifically for heavy bombers."

'Every time a great victory is won ... it is almost always the Brits and the Americans that do it together.'

Vance, speaking with a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft parked behind him, emphasized in a brief speech his admiration for the 501st Combat Support Wing "Pathfinders" and the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron "Red Dragons" as well as the continued importance of America's relationship with Great Britain.

"We've got a beautiful country here," the vice president said. "We've got a beautiful alliance."

"For over 100 years, we have worked with our friends from the United Kingdom to achieve great victories," Vance said. "And if you look at the long sweep of history, every time something big happens for the world, every time a great victory is won for freedom and for peace and for prosperity, it is almost always the Brits and the Americans that do it together — and we win every single time we go to war together. You guys know that as well as anybody."

Vance, who once quipped in a National Conservatism Conference speech that the U.K. might become the "first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon," has in recent months raised concerns about Britain forsaking its heritage and common ground with America.

On this trip, however, Vance has so far erred on the side of positivity, playing up the unique relationship between the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

RELATED: Liberals freaked out over Vance's Munich speech. Just wait till they read the State Department's Substack.

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Last week, Vance went carp fishing with British foreign minister David Lammy — an outing that might end up costing Lammy thousands of dollars, as he lacked a fishing rod license, which is apparently required of Britons. The BBC noted it was unclear if Vance bothered with purchasing the right to cast a line.

Vance's engagements with Lammy appeared fairly chummy, which might come naturally on account of their allegedly similar backgrounds.

'I just don't want other countries to follow us on what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration.'

The foreign minister claimed he cried when reading Vance's memoir and likened himself to the vice president in a recent Guardian interview, noting, "We are not just working-class politicians, but people with dysfunctional childhoods."

After their fishing excursion, the vice president kept the tone relatively light, saying, "The one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not."

With a mind to maintain common ground and common cause with the U.K., Vance did, however, criticize Britain's plan to recognize the state of Palestine and raised concerns that England is now aping the censorial practices embraced by the Biden administration.

"The entire collective West — our transatlantic relationship, our NATO allies, certainly the United States under the Biden administration — got a little too comfortable with censoring rather than engaging with a diverse range of opinions," Vance said. "I just don't want other countries to follow us on what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration."

Vance told the troops on Wednesday, "Over the past couple days, I've met with a number of leaders across the U.K. — across political parties, across the generations. That's one of the great things about the U.K.'s special relationship with the United States. It cuts across political alliances. It cuts across political parties. It cuts across generations because we've been working together for literally centuries."

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