Vice President JD Vance embraces his role as salesman on Donald Trump’s agenda and is in charge of GOP’s tax law branding.
JD Vance reflects an oval office conflict with Zelenskyy
Vice President JD Vance says the intense exchange of oval offices with the Ukrainian president revealed tensions in the major US ukraine.
WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance accepts his role as a salesman on President Donald Trump’s agenda, and is in charge of efforts to reform the administration’s signature tax cuts and spending laws after critics were tagged as a deficit-wetten giveaway for the rich elite.
The White House called for public opinion to be directed at Vance and his middle class in a poll showing voters’ opposition to elements of Trump’s biggest legislative achievements.
“We need to make sure people are aware of what actually exists in this law,” Vance told USA Today in an exclusive interview on August 27.
Check out our exclusive USA Today interview with JD Vance.
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Trump had insisted on calling the Signature Act “one big beautiful bill.” However, research shows that the law is not working well with voters, with provisions that will cause an estimated 10 million people to lose their health insurance.
Last week he entered Vance, which launched his brand in Peachtree City, Georgia, where he repeatedly called the law “tax cuts for working families.”
“We have to do politics and we have to actually talk to Americans,” Vance said in a broad conversation covering topics that include the televised spat with Ukrainian President Voldy Mir Zelensky, Trump’s deployment of the National Guard into Washington, D.C. and the president’s controversial efforts to drive away the federal reserve commander.
Trump salesman
Push shows the key role Vance will play for Trump leading up to the 2026 midterm elections. Translating Trump’s zigzag economic policies into skeptical masses is a job that has fallen largely on Vance, as presidents with limited terminology are frequently tied to international crises.
While he spent much of his first 200 days in the office, studying the ropes of Vice President, securing Trump’s position in orbit, Vance is increasingly seen as the future of Maga’s political movement.
The former Ohio Senator built his influence by carrying Trump’s controversial candidates on the finish line, persuading Republican senators to confirm defense secretary Pete Hegses and voting a tiebreaker. Over the summer, Vance helped pass the Tax Cuts and Expenditure Act, and again cast a vote to decide on a law that lost GOP’s support for Medicaid reductions in his ability as Senate president.
The bill that Trump signed into law on July 4th expanded the child tax credit and included tips for 2028 and tax credits on overtime salaries around the next presidential election.
“I knew a lot of people who rely on tips when I was growing up, many single mothers waiting for the tables that are now receiving big tax cuts due to this law,” Vance said in an interview.
Vance was elected vice president for his ability to speak to Americans from various economic backgrounds, namely manufacturing-oriented blue-collar workers.
His childhood in Middletown, Ohio formed the basis for the bestselling memoirs that became the Hollywood film “Hillbilly Elegy.” Vance served in the Marine Corps, attended Yale Law School, worked with Silicon Valley high-tech companies before becoming a US Senator.
These attributes portend a good for Vance in the future, said Chris Lacivita, former Trump co-campaign manager.
“But even more, the days spent at West Wing, oval and as vice president, are the level of additional experience that continues to convey his approach to all the policies and political things that enter the presidency’s potential bid,” Lashivita added.
Vance learns ropes
His outsider mentality helped make Vance popular on Trump’s ultra-conservative base. He was in Washington within two years when Trump chose him to join the GOP tickets in 2024.
However, his lack of experience with the world stage has sometimes led to high octane conflicts.
The most memorable moment of his vice president to date: the elliptical office in February faced off against Ukrainian President Voldy Mil Zelensky.
Vance said in an interview that he wanted the explosion to occur “not necessarily,” but he insisted that seeing the argument would be “useful for Americans.”
The leader then repaired the relationship. But did Zelensky visit the oval office last? Vance sat quietly on the sofa.
“Despite some differences, we are pretty side by side with President Zelensky. Of course we want to protect the integrity of Ukrainian territory,” Vance wrote in a much different to that of television’s Harangju in February.
Allies and advisors say Vance will be more comfortable as the country’s second commander.
They also said that Vance returned to his support role after an explosive moment helped him score Magazine and points, but when he spoke in February in a hall filled with European leaders and expressed his support for Germany’s far-right AFD party after the US allies felt worn out.
He visited the Vatican and India in April and attended Pope Leo’s first mass in May. On that trip, he cleared the air with Zelensky at a private meeting in Rome.
An aggressive pace
If Trump is near, Vance will round out the loose ends for the president who is the implementer and is changing the national landscape at a ferocious pace, said both male advisers.
“There’s so much more that the administration can do, you just can’t take your marble and go home. You have three and a half years left. It’s tired. But you need the same level of strength,” Trump adviser Lacivita said.
Without Trump’s aggressive pace, the political outcomes for Republicans in the presidential race in the mid-2026 and 2028 could be “pretty devastating,” Lashivita said.
One of the most important of these objectives is to maintain the House of Representatives. There is a slim majority of Republicans, and history works against them.
Maintaining control of the house is essential to Vance’s strategy of securing his own political position by winning Trump’s victory. His path to the White House is seen by political strategists as dependent on the public’s perception of Trump at the end of the administration.
“He’s not holding the spotlight. He’s been extremely happy to help the president in the specific role he needed,” said former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Wayley, who ran for the US Senate in North Carolina and resigned from his party role.
To that end, Vance led the way in promoting tax cuts and spending bills. He has stopped in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin for the past two months. And his cadence is expected to be picked up over the next few weeks.
Trump is also expected to appear at some point in favor of the law. The president told a cabinet meeting this week that he is now calling the law “a massive middle class tax cut.”
“You want to go to it and have a conversation about what’s in it, and it’s important to have a conversation about what the bill is called,” Rashivita said. “And if you’re debating what the bill is calling, you’re playing their game. If we’re debating what’s in it, we’re fighting on the grass. That’s where we want to be.”
Vance’s longtime advisor said the VP will campaign directly for candidates as the midterm approaches, and will become a familiar face on the 2026 campaign trail.
Vance also plays a key role in Trump’s bid to give Republicans a medium-term advantage by redrawing the red state’s Capitol map.
He traveled to Indiana this month to discuss ideas with the state’s governor Mike Brown and spoke to Indiana lawmakers about the issue at the White House Summit.
In an interview, Vance showed that he has not yet expanded his campaign to states such as Missouri and Ohio, which are considered major targets by other Republicans. He said he had never spoken to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine or Mike Kehoe about the unusual medieval rezoning race.
Trump’s mid-term money man
The most consequential role ahead of Vance’s mid-term may be as the party’s main fundraiser. The unique arrangement gives him access to donors who can help fund his expected presidential bid.
The RNC announced that Vance will serve as financial committee chair in March. A sitting vice president has never been helpful.
Vance’s longtime adviser cast the move as politically clever for the White House, as the president cannot expect to run a free world and always fundraising nationwide.
Republicans had gotten about $80 million in cash at the end of June, far more than $15 million Democrats were in the bank.
Vance doesn’t have the same set of issues as the other vice presidents had, but Trump asked him to take on other expensive items, including completing the Tiktok deal.
Trump is so confident in Vance that he will plug him into some of his most important areas, said former senior Trump campaign adviser and Trump ally Jason Miller.
“While the president is busy with the White House trying to bring world peace and secure borders, the Vice President is leading the RNC’s midterm funding accusations,” Miller said.
JD Vance is ready for the presidency, but Trump says “healthy”
In an exclusive interview, Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump is in “health” while he is ready for the presidency.
Heartbeat
Vance said in his recent appearance on a recent ruthless podcast that Trump encourages him to be involved in all aspects of governance. But he said Trump “has more of a weight of responsibility.”
In an interview with USA Today, the Vice President insisted he was ready to take the reins if necessary. Trump, 79, is the oldest person to be founded as president, and Vance, 41, is one of the youngest men to become second-most useful as commander.
“I’ve had a lot of good hands-on training over the last 200 days,” Vance said. “And if God forbids it, if there are terrible tragedy, I can’t think of better workplace training than what I’ve got in the last 200 days.”
He suggested he had spoken with his wife Usha about the prospects for another national campaign.
“She’ll focus on what I think, the work we have right now. Do the best job we can, and then I’ll figure it out when that door opens later,” Vance said.
Vance is considered an obvious heir to Trump’s move, whether he acknowledges his ambitions or not.
“The Vice President is the future of the Republicans and the Maga movement,” said Miller, a former Trump campaign adviser.
Without directly supporting his estimated 2028 bid, Trump’s political adviser Rashivita’s message to Vance was to continue doing what you’re doing.
“Republicans who have a vision to become president in 2028 will not happen unless Donald Trump succeeds.”
Contribution: Zac Anderson
