Vice President JD Vance refused to stand up and applaud environmental preservation during King Charles III’s speech to Congress.
The British monarch was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a largely optimistic speech, which included a few carefully concealed rebukes to the president.
When the king moved onto one of his great personal passions—the protection of the environment—he drew warm applause from across the chamber.
“So as we look toward the next 250 years, we must also reflect on our shared responsibility to safeguard nature, our most precious and irreplaceable asset,” Charles said.
Applause swept across the room as senators and members of Congress got to their feet in a show of support.
Even MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson, who sat over the king’s shoulder, rose and clapped.
As he did so, he looked down to his right, where Vance remained seated, hands in his lap, an expressionless look on his face.
Vance has long been a proponent of fossil fuel use and has, in the past, spoken out about cuts to red tape. He also attacked President Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and as a senator, introduced bills to slash federal tax credits for electric vehicles.
Charles did manage to squeeze an environment-adjacent clap from Vance later in his speech. “The natural wonders of the United States of America are indeed a unique asset, and generations of Americans have risen to this calling,” the King said.
“Indigenous, political, and civic leaders, people in rural communities and cities alike, have all helped to protect and nurture what Theodore Roosevelt called the glorious heritage of this land’s extraordinary natural splendor on which so much of its prosperity has always depended.
“Yet even as we celebrate the beauty of what surrounds us, our generation must decide how to address the collapse of the critical natural systems, which threatens far more than the harmony and essential diversity of nature.
“We ignore at our peril that these natural systems, in other words, nature’s own economy, provide the foundation for our prosperity and our national security.”
This time, Vance did clap, although neither Vance nor Johnson stood.
President Trump has often opposed environmental policy proposals and described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Vice President’s office for comment.
