Vice Presidential Pool Reports of February 11, 2025

VPOTUS pool report #1 Feb. 11, Paris AI summit

Vice President Vance entered the the Grand Palais at a little before 10 am, and was greeted by the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, and Clara Chappaz, the minister of artificial intelligence and digital affairs for France.

He lingered outside the hall, talking with participants, and sat through a brief talk by President Macron and then a much longer one by Prime Minister Modi, the co-host of the AI summit. Modi's is worth your time, a description of an image of AI powered by green energy and focused on its spread to more than a billion Indians.

Vance took the stage at 10:50 and delivered a sharply-worded speech cautioning the Europeans in particular that the US planned to dominate AI technology, from the chips to the large language models. He said it would not be hindered by excessive regulation, and spent no time, for example, on discusssing "guardrails" to prevent the abuse of the technology. He issued several warnings to China, without naming China. Speech was open press. We are moving to Elysee.

VPOTUS pool report #2 Feb. 11, Paris AI summit

After the AI summit, Vice President Vance went to the Elysee Palace for what appeared to be a social lunch with President Macron.. His limo entered the palace grounds at 1:08 and Vance was accompanied by his wife, Usha. (Sorry, none of the kids this time.) Macron and his wife, Brigitte, greeted them and all four posed for photos. They entered the palace and your pool departed.

The pool moved to the American ambassador's residence -- there is no Senate confirmed ambassador yet, so the house is a little more spare and museum-like than it is in more normal times. We were put in one of the interior entertaining rooms, near the garden that is separated by a a wall from Elysee,

At about 3:15 we were ushered into a meeting with the VPOTUS, Ursula von der Layen and Kaja Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister who is now the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security.

Von der Leyen was sitting to Vance's right. Considering the blistering statement she had issued earlier in the day on steel tariffs, she was clearly restrained, at least in public.

Vance was vague about the coming conversation, said they would discuss "some trade issues, some economic issues. The Trump administration has been very clear we care a lot about Europe. We see a lot economic relationship to build upon with Europe, but but we also want to make sure that we're actually engaged in the security partnership that's good for both. Europe and the United States."

Von der Layen praised the part of Vance's AI speech that focused on "optimism" with no reference to the gaping divide on strategy. Vance invited the press to leave, saying "now that we have made our public remarks we'll have real conversation, so you guys have to leave."

VPOTUS pool report #3 Feb. 11, Paris Bilateral meeting

Hi,

I'll be taking over for esteemed pooler David Sanger for the remainder of the trip.

At 4:27 PM, we were brought into a bilateral meeting with VPOTUS and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi and VPOTUS were already speaking when the pool entered the room, discussing the working dinner that they attended on Monday night at the Élysée Palace.
"It was a very good get together," Modi said.

"It was, it was very nice," VPOTUS replied.

VPOTUS did not take questions from the pool about whether he discussed steel tariffs in his previous meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

We received some background guidance about the VPOTUS schedule for the remainder of the week.

On Thursday, he will visit Dachau concentration camp in Germany and then he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in Munich, according to a person familiar with his plans.

At 5:11 PM, the pool left the ambassador's residence and returned to our hotels. We have a lid at 5:23 PM.

VPOTUS pool report #4 Feb. 11, Paris outing

The Vance family visited the Louvre Museum this evening, according to an official in the VP office. The musuem is closed to the public on Tuesdays, and the pool did not accompany them on the outing.

The VP's office also shared the following guest lists from today's bilateral meetings:

EU bilateral delegation

President of the European Commission
Her Excellency Ursula VON DER LEYEN

Vice President of the European Commission
Ms. Kaja KALLAS

Head of Cabinet of President von der Leyen
Mr. Björn SEIBERT

Deputy Head of Cabinet of President von der Leyen
Mr. Alexandre ADAM

Head of Cabinet of Kaja Kallas
Ms. Vivian LOONELA

Trade Adviser of President von der Leyen
Mr. Tomas BAERT

Deputy European Commission Chief Spokesperson
Ms. Arianna PODESTA

U.S. delegation for EU bilateral

Vice President of the United States of America
JD VANCE

Charge d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Paris
David MCCAWLEY

Chief of Staff of Vice President Vance
Jacob RESES

Special Bureau Officer for European Affairs of the U.S. Department of State
Louis BONO

National Security Advisor to Vice President Vance
Andrew BAKER

Notetaker for Vice President Vance
Kevin BALL

Notetaker for U.S. Embassy Paris
Rachel MUELLER

India Bilateral Guests

Prime Minister of India
NARENDRA MODI

Vice President of the United States of America
JD VANCE

Second Lady of the United States of America
USHA VANCE

Notetakers and translators