J. D. Vance’s Bumpy Ride
Just a week or two ago, Vice President JD Vance spoke like a man who believes the odds are in his favor. He had traveled to Hungary to attend a campaign rally for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, the most Trumpian of European leaders, and, before leaving, he told reporters at the airport how kind the Hungarian people had been to him. Asked about the war in Iran – the day before, Donald Trump had threatened to destroy the country’s “entire civilization” – Vance suggested that Iran’s insistence on its “right” to enrich uranium might actually represent an opening to a deal. As he put it: “I thought, you know what? My wife is allowed to skydive, but she doesn’t jump out of a plane, because she and I have an agreement that she won’t, because I don’t want my wife to jump out of a plane.”
The days that followed were a grim reminder that whatever rights Vance thinks he has – to his dignity, to his faith or to his position as a MAGA heir apparent – depend on the deal he made to subordinate himself to Trump. And the president doesn’t seem to care if Vance humiliates himself while shopping. Indeed, Trump considered a new ballroom to be more important to his legacy than his vice president is.
Vance had barely finished his stay in Hungary when Trump sent him to Pakistan to negotiate with the Iranians. Vance, an Iraq veteran, had apparently opposed the war, and Trump had not been subtle in wanting to involve him in its progress. This round of talks collapsed after twenty-one hours, an event that was followed, in quick succession, by Orbán’s defeat; Trump’s attack on Pope Leo XIV, who condemned the destruction of civilization (“WEAK on crime”); and the president’s release of a now-notorious AI-generated image of himself as a robed Christ figure.
Trump deleted that post, saying he thought the image showed him as a doctor. Vance told Fox News that the president removed it because “a lot of people didn’t understand his humor.” Was there an element of humor from the president insulting the pope right after Vance announced that his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way to Faith,” would be released in June? Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019, after the success of his first book, “Hillbilly Elegy”; at this time he was pursuing a career in venture capital, backed by Peter Thiel. (In 2022, Vance was elected to the Senate, originally from Ohio.) Vance has said his faith is inspired by St. Augustine, but, again, his pact is with Trump. He was quickly put to work telling Leo to stay away from Trump and be careful when he talked about “theological matters.”
Vance, whose wife, Usha, is expecting their fourth child, might have seen this coming. The plight of vice presidents, with their ill-defined role, is well known, and this is not the first time Trump has demeaned someone who serves him. This isn’t even the first time Vance has been deployed to downplay a profanity-themed AI image. Last May, shortly after the death of Pope Francis, Trump released a portrait of himself as the enthroned pope. At the time, Vance said, “As a general rule, I’m OK with people who tell jokes and I’m not OK with people who start stupid wars that kill thousands of my countrymen” — a reminder of how the administration’s goals have evolved. Trump, who once claimed the Nobel Peace Prize, has unleashed a war of choice in Iran, inflicting damage that a deal cannot repair.
The American right is also in a volatile and fractious state. Last week, at an event in Athens, Georgia, for Turning Point USA, the organization that Charlie Kirk led before his assassination last September, Vance acknowledged that “this Iranian thing” had sowed discord. Republican opponents of the war, still in the minority in their party according to polls, constitute a heterogeneous group. Some regret that Trump bypassed Congress. Many working-class red-state voters — for whom Vance’s right-wing populist brand is designed — seem dismayed by soaring gas prices and neglect of national issues. There are anti-interventionists from the manosphere (Joe Rogan, Theo Von). Meanwhile, in a very noisy corner of MAGA In this world inhabited by Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, the pressing question is how the “Epstein class” managed to corrupt Trump, subjecting him to their will and that of Israel. And we are talking, apparently seriously, about the Antichrist. The situation is one of ideological fermentation rather than a return to a Romneyist center.
