LONDINIUM CHRONICLES, 91 AD: Germanicus and Gaius discuss the reception of J.D. Vance in Europe; Trump’s upcoming negotiations with Vladimir Putin; Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency; and a lesson from 5th century Rome that could find application in the 21st century.

Germanicus and I have a great deal to discuss.

Because of the events of these last days, we now have a little clarity about the 21st century. As I understand it right now, the European leadership—and that would begin with Mr. Macron and include Schultz of Germany, certainly Starmer will be there from Britain—well, let's just say the European leadership will meet in Paris in what they call “an emergency meeting.”

And the topic is the presentation by the vice president, Mr. Vance, at the Munich Security Conference that took the last three days. And the speech by Mr. Vance, which I recommend to everyone, identified Germany and Britain in particular, and Scotland, too, as suppressing free speech, as being unacceptable to Americans. The response from the audience was that Mr. Vance is unacceptable, and the Trump administration is unacceptable—“we came here to hear your plan about getting us out of trouble in Ukraine, and instead you're interfering in our election!”

The German election is in one week on the 23rd. And the party that Mr. Vance named in particular was AfD (Alternative for Deutschland), led by Alice Weidel, a 46-year-old former banker.

She worked for Goldman Sachs. She lives in Switzerland (openly with a wife from Sri Lanka), and she very carefully speaks every night about what she intends to do when she's chancellor, which is to deport the people who came to Germany between 2015 and 2020. And she's going to do that because she says Germany is not safe and they've lost control of our streets.

There was an incident in Munich last week that illustrates perfectly what she's talking about. An Afghan refugee who had applied for asylum and was rejected, deliberately drove a vehicle into the back of a large crowd. Right now there are two dead out of the crowd, many injured. One of them is a two-year-old female, and Germany is enraged.

At the same time, the leadership in Germany is enraged by Mr. Vance's remarks. The German defense minister, Pistorius, has condemned the vice president of the United States. The ironies here are so thick.

In the meantime, we're told that immediately Mr. Trump will travel to Riyadh to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the Ukraine conflict and other matters having to do with what Mr. Trump calls “de-nuking.”

There's also the matter of trade and sanctions. Secretary of State Rubio and others of the Trump administration are already meeting with, or have already met with, Lavrov and a team from Moscow. So this will be a bilateral confrontation between the two cold warriors of the 20th century, looking to “de-nuke” in the 21st century.

Of note, and I'll end here, Mr. Zelensky is not invited to the Riyadh meeting. To my knowledge, none of the European leaders are invited to the Riyadh meeting. This is Alexander meeting with Napoleon in the middle of a river on a raft to decide the fate of Europe.

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