European Nations Grapple With Growing ‘Free Speech Problem’ Under Trump’s Gaze

BUDAPEST—European nations are waking up to the consequences of their own censorship, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump argued on Wednesday — a cultural shift due in large part to Trump’s return to the world stage.

Jason Miller, a longtime political strategist and the founder of GETTR, spoke at the EU-US Summit at the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, where he discussed the European Union’s ongoing attempts at censorship of European citizens with former White House director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan and Matt Mowers, president of the global strategies firm Valcour and a State Department veteran.

Miller held up a copy of The Economist that featured a startling headline in bold: “Europe’s Free Speech Problem.” The Economist is far from a right-leaning publication, the former Trump advisor joked, emphasizing that “Free speech is a massively big deal here in the EU, as well as the U.K.”

Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships

“This is something that everybody realizes is huge,” he shared, holding up the magazine, “because what happens with the EU, what happens with the U.K., what also happens with free speech in the United States, all impact each other.”

As an example, he referred to the United Kingdom’s request for a “back door” to Apple’s iCloud encryption to help the British government access Apple iCloud user data. The Daily Wire broke the news in February that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was probing the potential implications of such a request.

Photo courtesy of the EU-US Forum.

On Wednesday, Miller shared that “the U.K. government is telling the United States that if Apple still wants to continue doing business in the U.K., that they have to give access to iClouds.”

“Of course,” he noted, “they say it’s only to stop the worst of the worst, to stop the bad actors. Anyone in the U.S. intelligence side will tell you, if you open up people’s individual iClouds…it will take hackers and other people five minutes, tops, to hack into everybody’s iCloud. Dangers like this become very, very real.”

Thanks to Trump’s comments on the issue, as well as Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, much more attention is on the European leaders leading the charge to censor their citizens.

“President Trump and the administration are calling attention to [censorship in Europe] and I think really putting the bully pulpit to use,” Miller told The Daily Wire in an interview following his remarks. He argued that it is “way too easy for countries to sweep under the rug” stories like that of Lucy Connolly, whose angry, aggressive post calling for mass deportations earned her 31 months in jail. 

Miller argued that what Connolly said was certainly unacceptable, “but it’s not 31-months-in-prison unacceptable.”

“I think the punishment has to fit the crime,” Miller said.

The president and his administration have made free speech a main focus “because what happens in one country will impact the U.S.,” Miller noted. What happens in the European Union, or is dictated by the European Union, will almost certainly happen next in the U.S. unless checked, he argued. 

“Ultimately, when they start putting restrictions on their free speech then other outlets, whether it be a social media platform, whether it be technology platforms such as Apple or Google or things of that nature, when free speech is suppressed then ultimately what’s gonna happen is so many of those same policies will be put in place in the United States,” Miller said.  

“You see that often there’s a symbiotic relationship between the two,” reflected Mowers in an interview with The Daily Wire. “What you’re seeing is good policies and bad policies emanate on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.”

.@JasonMiller: ‘Many of these decisions aren’t made by individual countries, they’re being made by bureaucrats in Brussels who are unelected and unaccountable.’ pic.twitter.com/WOYzkHvb6c

— EU-US Forum (@EUUSForum) May 28, 2025

“We’ve been shining a light on that since we started the EU-US Forum in the early part of last year,” he explained, noting, “We’re seeing election results bear out that Europeans are fed up with the status quo, the bureaucrats in Brussels, the over regulation, the over taxation, the fact that they’re clamping down on free speech, they’re doing nothing to address the unchecked migration that is jeopardizing security and jobs.”

Their comments come as a group of senior State Department officials head to France and Ireland this week to push both countries to respect citizens’ rights, part of a State Department effort to fight “egregious examples of democratic backsliding” and “violations of basic natural rights” in Europe, a senior State Department official shared with The Daily Wire.

The initiative, launched by the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, is especially focused on defending freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to privacy. In France, the State Department delegation will meet with government officials to discuss the recent arrest of French politician Marine Le Pen. In Ireland, their discussion will focus on concerns that a new European Union law could be used to censor free speech.

As Vance highlighted in Munich, the Trump administration sees real threats facing its allies in Europe “from within” — particularly cases of governments targeting their own citizens and particular forms of political and religious speech. Those targeted are disproportionately Christian, conservative, or nationalist.

“It’s not a coincidence that these kinds of global forces are using similar tactics to those that were used on this side of the Atlantic against President Trump and his supporters over the past eight years,” the State Department official shared.

Vance’s remarks in Munich continue to dominate discussions of free speech across the globe, and will likely continue to do so during CPAC Hungary 2025, where conservative leaders and commentators are gathering this week. Miller suggested that Trump’s and Vance’s statements on censorship as of late are a “loud wake up call” to European nations and a “pretty clear signal that President Trump and Vice President Pence are not going to back down.” 

“They’re gonna stand up and fight for free speech all around the entire world, and I think that’s a good thing,” he argued. “Ultimately that supports the sovereignty of individuals and nations that are, say, members of the EU, that free speech has to be defended.” 

“It’s been monumental,” Mowers said of the Trump administration’s impact on Europe. “You’re seeing it right now play out in the trade relationship that President Trump has been negotiating with the EU, and recent developments that are happening in the last few hours, where they are saying now by early July they have a goal of getting a framework in place.”

.@JasonMiller on the weaponization of government from the left:

‘The last line of defense for the extreme radical left is the legal system… people should be able to embrace the sovereignty and individuality and the rights that they hold as citizens.’ pic.twitter.com/C764l03NTI

— EU-US Forum (@EUUSForum) May 28, 2025

Mowers praised Vance for arguing that the United States’ relationship with Europe is strong, but that it must be based on an honest conversation about the problems at hand — namely, that the EU has been trampling free speech, failing to honor the outcomes of elections, and disenfranchising political leaders with whom they disagree.

“If we’re going to talk about the uniqueness, and the real pedestal we want to put our relationship on, which is worthy, we’ve got to start acting it too,” Mowers said.

“That’s not going to happen with some outside influence, it’s going to happen from within, and you’re seeing European voters vote that way as well, because they’re expressing their frustrations with the leaders who have ignored the actual challenges in their lives.”