JD ‘no fact checks’ Vance was just publicly fact checked by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer

If there’s one thing JD Vance hates more than a canine-heavy diet plan, it’s fact checking.

That fact is so well-known, by now, that it’s become a wide-reaching meme, thanks to Vance’s open dismissal of silly little things like reality, research, or the truth. It started long before he took to the stage for the one and only vice presidential debate in October of 2024, but that was the moment it became a piece of American history.

As Vance stood upon that stage, swearing up and down that he and Trump would be the most effective, the most honest, and the most capable team to ever take the Oval Office, the 40-year-old exposed just how broken his relationship with the truth really is. In a mortifyingly hilarious knee-jerk moment, Vance responded to some very necessary context — about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio — with fumbling outrage, insisting that “the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check.”

Has ever a more exposing statement been made by a politician? Vance made it clear, with that one blustering line, that he never intended to tell the truth — he just didn’t think he’d face pushback. It’s a new Trump era constant that lies pour from the mouths of our elected leaders, and it’s increasingly difficult to find the truth among the unceasing falsehoods when our press is being stifled at every turn. Which is exactly what they want — when they can tamp out the truth, they decide what the real facts are.

Something Vance is a pro at, by now, as evidenced by his latest embarrassing fact-check. The Trump administration may be able to gut the White House Press Corps without remorse, but they can’t silence fellow world leaders. So when Vance was blisteringly fact-checked on live television by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, he had no recourse but to sit by and accept the L.

Addressing both politicians and reporters from the Oval Office, Vance doubled down on the damaging and frankly offensive rhetoric that has drenched recent conversations between U.S. and European leaders. The constant attempts to seize the high ground seem to rely exclusively on exaggerations or untruths, and Vance was just informed of that in real time.

After Vance told those gathered that “there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British — of course what the British do in their own country is up to them — but also affect American technology companies and by extension American citizens,” before promising that the topic would be discussed at the day’s meetings.

The moment Vance was done speaking, Starmer cut in with some quick clarity for the clearly-confused politician. “We’ve had free speech for a very very long time, in the United Kingdom” the prime minister said. “And it will last for a very very long time.” He added that he’s “very proud of” the U.K.’s history where free speech is concerned.

The prompt fact-check clearly made Vance uncomfortable, and it should. It’s embarrassing for anyone to speak so confidently while being so wrong, but it’s much, much more humiliating for a man in Vance’s position.

The U.K has been refining its free speech laws for literal centuries, but Vance isn’t completely wrong — the U.S. boasts broader freedom of speech than essentially anyone else on the planet. Even the U.K. has certain restrictions, but as one commenter on social media aptly noted, “Free speech in Vance-ese just means unfettered bigotry.”

So yeah, technically Vance is right. His “unfettered bigotry” has no place in the U.K., and it should have no place in the U.S. — but in Trump’s America, dishonesty is the new democracy.