In the months since President Donald Trump was elected, tension has emerged between the U.S. and many of its longstanding allies in the European Union. And the senior member of Utah’s federal delegation, Sen. Mike Lee, has made dozens of posts magnifying the rift.
“Europeans despise Americans,” Lee wrote on the social platform X last month, urging the country to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
But in a visit to Utah on Friday, EU Ambassador Jovita Neliupšienė wanted to correct the record: Europe and the U.S. have deep connections — from trade partnerships to academic exchanges — that the EU wants to preserve.
Neliupšienė traveled to Utah at the end of a turbulent week in which the Trump administration partially suspended steep tariffs it had placed on European imports, and EU retaliatory tariffs were subsequently paused. Through conversations with leaders in Utah and other states, the ambassador hopes to increase pressure on Trump to negotiate a trade deal.
The two-day agenda included visits with Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and two of Utah’s six members of Congress — Reps. Burgess Owens and Mike Kennedy. Neliupšienė also met with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I think that transatlantic relations — it kind of sounds like a very theoretical notion and concept,“ the ambassador said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
“But in reality, it’s actually based on much deeper connections. It’s people-to-people connection. You know, I’ve met more people speaking Lithuanian — and that’s a language of 3 million people — in this town than I’ve met ... through the entire year in the whole country,” Neliupšienė added, referring to the Utahns who have served Latter-day Saint missions in Lithuania.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The EU's ambassador to the U.S., Jovita Neliupšienė, keeps a busy schedule as she is rushed to another appointment in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 11, 2025.
Neliupšienė said she plans to meet with the remainder of Utah’s congressional delegation — including Lee — in Washington next week.
As far as Lee’s criticism toward Europe, Neliupšienė said, “That’s freedom of speech, which we respect.”
When EU regulators moved last July to take action against Elon Musk’s X for allegedly failing to curb disinformation and illegal content on the platform in violation of its Digital Services Act, Lee was vocal in his support for Musk.
Lee joined Musk in criticizing the move, calling EU officials “fascists” and claiming “Europeans don’t value free speech.”
A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lee threatened sanctions if the EU enforced the law: “If the EuroCensors are going to throw punches like these — for a company standing up for American ideals like free speech — perhaps we should be ready to punch back, twice as hard if necessary,” the senator posted on X.
The law, Neliupšienė said, stemmed from concerns that EU citizens have — and share with many Utahns — when it comes to “foreign, malign interference in our elections.”
She drew a line between the EU social media regulations and laws passed by Utah intended to limit alleged harms that social media and other websites can have on young people.
“The idea of all the regulations ... is that everything that is illegal offline should be illegal online. So if it’s illegal to harass people in real life, it should be illegal. If hate speech is illegal out in the street, it should be illegal online. If abuse of children is illegal and there should be a criminal conviction that comes with that, it should be the same in the digital space,” Neliupšienė said. “It gets extremely dangerous, and it’s difficult to regulate.”
The EU “will [never] act as a ministry of truth,” the ambassador said, but wants to encourage social media companies to adopt policies that protect users.
The law is also meant to prohibit platforms from removing political speech, Neliupšienė added, pointing to EU officials’ criticism of companies’ decisions to bar Trump from their platforms in 2021. “It goes both ways,” she said.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Sen. Mike Lee, arrives for a speaking engagement at the Sutherland Institute on the University of Utah campus on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023.
Neliupšienė hopes to explain the EU’s perspective in a conversation with Lee — and also wants to get Lee on board with keeping the U.S. in NATO.
In March, he posted on X, “We hold Europe’s security umbrella and thereby subsidize Europe’s march toward socialism and climate alarmism. Time to leave NATO.”
“I agree,” Neliupšienė told The Tribune, “We’ve enjoyed the privilege of the U.S. security umbrella. That’s undeniable, it’s a fact.”
She continued, “But walking away from NATO and leaving this insecurity gap actually will undermine the global security, because our systemic rivals, if you wish — Russia, Iran, in certain extent China, as well — they’re still looking at us."
The EU announced plans last month to invest €800 billion in building its defense capabilities, and the ambassador said member countries who have signed on with NATO are making strides toward playing a larger role in the partnership.
The ambassador said she’ll work to persuade Lee and other U.S. officials who are skeptical of the 76-year-old treaty that the organization is worthwhile, and “the alternative is much, much worse.”