Checking In on J.D.
J.D. Vance is a surprisingly good match for President Trump.
Bubba
05 Feb
Why Vance Is a Good Foil For Trump
When Donald Trump chose J.D. Vance as his running mate last year, many Republicans viewed it as a gamble. But since that time, Vance’s sharp messaging and confident defense of the Trump agenda has won over his skeptics.
The latest: The uproar over the president’s controversial announcement this weekend, when he said the U.S. would raise tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China, demonstrated how Vance’s communication style could complement Trump’s.
How Trump said it: Trump’s messaging was combative and all-over-the-place (critics might call it unhinged), but bursting with the type of madcap energy that has always roused his supporters.
How Vance said it: The vice president played foil to Trump, with rhetoric that was noticeably more focused and calmer in tone.
Do Americans realize that the Canadians charge massive, massive tariffs on our products that go into the country of Canada, including on our great agricultural products that people right here in the state of Ohio depend on?
Well, if the Canadians are going to use their economic power to penalize Americans, I think it's totally reasonable for the American president to say, “We're done being taken advantage of.”
We of course want to have a great relationship with Canada, but that goes both directions. And that's all his conduct and his activity over the last few days was about.
We're done being taken advantage of in this country. We have got to rebalance the trade relationship between ourselves and our allies, ourselves and our adversaries. President Trump is committed to that, and tariffs are one tool that he's going to use to accomplish it.
The moment: Vance’s admirers have cited his interview last month with CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan as another display of the vice president’s messaging talents.
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly’s reaction to the interview:
He's very smart to go on with Margaret Brennan because some people said, “Why is he going to CBS? It's the enemy. Look what they did to him in the vice presidential debate.”
And I thought, “no.” He's very smart because she's adversarial. She's going to try to punch him. And she's nowhere near his intellectual equal. So he knows he can just slice and dice her with ease and do it behaving as a gentleman, but leave everybody with the same impression, which is, she is no match for him. Her arguments are no match for his.
The signs were there: Even liberal-leaning outlets like The New York Times declared Vance the winner of the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election.
The vibes: While Vance started off as an unusually unpopular VP pick, his favorability numbers have steadily climbed.
In fact, according to a new Gallup poll, the vice president is one of the few prominent political figures with a positive net favorability rating.
Bubba’s Two Cents
I don’t agree with everything Vance does or says. But even his detractors have begrudgingly admitted he’s got skills. Vance appears to be playing a few roles as VP:
Trump translator: He puts logical and ideological frameworks around Trump’s rants, sometimes turning them into pretty bulletproof arguments.
Pseudo-prime minister: While Trump is the beating red heart of MAGA, Vance plays a pretty good brain.
At this stage, the Trump-Vance tandem appears far more cohesive and coherent in its messaging than Trump-Pence ever was. Stepping back, this shift mirrors broader improvements in the operational efficiency of Trump 2.0. Political observers have pointed out that the 2024 version of Trump’s administration is sharper and more disciplined than in 2016.
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