Vice-President JD Vance warned on Friday that France and the United Kingdom could pose a future security risk to the US if what he called “Islamist-adjacent” ideas were to gain political influence

Speaking in an interview with UK-based online outlet UnHerd, Vance argued that the backlash over immigration has left Europe without “a very good sense of itself”

There are “Islamist-aligned or Islamist-adjacent people who hold office in European countries right now,” he added, without specifying who exactly he referred to

For this reason, it is “absolutely” possible to see Islamist-adjacent views rise to power in a European nuclear power, like Paris or London, in 15 years

Vance said the issue was of direct concern to Washington because France and the UK are nuclear powers. “If they allow themselves to be overwhelmed with very destructive moral ideas, then you allow nuclear weapons to fall in the hands of people who can actually cause very, very serious harm to the US”

Washington will have “to have certain moral conversations with Europe”