Vice President JD Vance called reporter Mehdi Hasan a “dummy” on Monday on X after Hasan asked him if he’d read an article about the White House penalising The Associated Press for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its longstanding name.
Retweeting an Axios article on the White House’s dispute with the AP, Hasan had written, “Hey [Vance], I know you’re busy lecturing the Europeans on free speech, but have you seen this?” Hasan was referring to Vance’s X posts calling out the “lunacy” of Germany prosecuting hate speech.
“Yes dummy,” Vance replied. “I think there’s a difference between not giving a reporter a seat in the WH press briefing room and jailing people for dissenting views. The latter is a threat to free speech, the former is not. Hope that helps!”
Hasan, who worked for HuffPost UK and is now the editor-in-chief of Zeteo, later wrote on his site that he was “amused” Vance had called him a name “like a second-grader.”
“I get that Elon [Musk] and Donald [Trump] are running the country while JD tries to find a purpose in life, but surely the one elected official who is a heartbeat away from the most powerful job on Earth must have more to do with his time than just… post,” Hasan wrote.
Last week, the White House began targeting the AP after the news organisation refused to mandate the use of “Gulf of America,” the new name President Donald Trump gave the Gulf of Mexico, in its popular stylebook. The White House barred the AP from attending an executive order signing and later announced that the outlet could lose its access to some press spaces indefinitely.
“This isn’t just about the Gulf of America,” White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich told Axios. “This is about AP weaponising language through their stylebook to push a partisan worldview in contrast with the traditional and deeply held beliefs of many Americans and many people around the world.”
Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications of the AP, told Axios that AP’s stylebook, which many news publications use as a reference on language, “doesn’t align with any particular agenda.”
The AP has said that it will continue to call the international body of water the Gulf of Mexico, as it is known elsewhere, while also acknowledging the new name Trump has given it.
“As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognisable to all audiences,” the AP said in the statement.