JD Vance Knows Who Belongs

Opinion|JD Vance Claims One of Our Worst Traditions as His Own

More than most recent vice presidents, JD Vance seems to be locked out of the room where it happens.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, is by most accounts the president’s point person on mass deportation and immigration enforcement. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, leads the effort to terrorize federal employees, bring the federal bureaucracy to heel and seize the power of the purse from Congress. The Department of Government Efficiency, formerly run by Elon Musk, is busy dismantling the nation’s research capacity and working to centralize government data on Americans.

Vance might have been on the ballot in November, but you’d be hard-pressed to find him anywhere in this triumvirate. He holds no particular portfolio of issues or items to pursue and he appears to have no special relationship with the president. On occasion, you’ll see Vance engaged in the sorts of civic activities that vice presidents are often made to perform — those events where it is important that someone from the high end of the administration makes an appearance, but not so important that you would send the president or the secretary of state. Even then, however, Vance seems to do less of this than past vice presidents. This is perhaps because unlike his predecessors, President Trump is less interested in governing than he is in playing the role of head of state.

As Trump himself will tell you, he tends not to know what his deputies are doing with their time. He professes to be ignorant of the actions of his government. Asked, for example, if his administration was planning to send migrants to Libya, he replied, “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the Department of Homeland Security.” He saves his attention and enthusiasm for the pomp and circumstance of the presidency. He’s eager to host other heads of state, to attend celebrations and to speak to crowds of supporters. He also spends a lot of his time at his clubs and resorts, golfing, gossiping and glad-handing with passers-by and hangers-on.

With Trump consumed with the responsibilities of a typical vice president and other members of the administration doing the work of running the country, JD Vance is left largely on the sidelines, away from the action. Why does the vice president of the United States spend so much time writing posts on social media, preening for his allies or tussling with his ideological opponents? Well, why does anyone?

In fairness to the vice president, his online presence speaks to the main role he does seem to have in the White House, something akin to the president’s official fanboy. And in addition to acting as cheer captain for his boss, Vance also works to give the administration a veneer of intellectualism to cover its cruelty, corruption and incompetence — a spokesman for the president’s brand of national populism.