Vice President JD Vance is embracing his role as salesman-in-chief for Donald Trump’s agenda and taking charge of a rebrand of the GOP’s tax law.
JD Vance reflects on Oval Office clash with Zelenskyy
Vice President JD Vance says Oval Office heated exchange with the Ukrainian president revealed key US-Ukraine tensions.
WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance is embracing his role as salesman-in-chief for President Donald Trump’s agenda and taking charge of an effort to rebrand the administration’s signature tax cut and spending law after it was tagged by critics as a deficit-swelling giveaway to rich elites.
With polls showing voter opposition to elements of Trump’s top legislative achievement, the White House has called on Vance and his middle-class bona fides to turn public opinion.
“We’ve got to make sure that people are aware of what’s actually in this legislation,” Vance told USA TODAY in an Aug. 27 exclusive interview.
Watch the full interview of USA TODAY’s exclusive with JD Vance here:
JD Vance on 200 days of ‘on-the-job training’
JD Vance sits down for an exclusive interview with White House correspondent Francesca Chambers to discuss his first 200 days as vice president.
Trump had insisted on calling the signature law the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Yet surveys show the law, with provisions that will cause an estimated 10 million people to lose their health insurance, is not playing well with voters.
Enter Vance, who rolled out a rebrand last week in Peachtree City, Georgia, where he repeatedly called the law the “Working Families Tax Cut.”
“We’ve got to do the job of politics and actually talk to the American people,” Vance said in a wide-ranging conversation that covered topics including his televised spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, and the president’s controversial efforts to oust a Federal Reserve governor.
Trump’s salesman
The push demonstrates the crucial role Vance is expected to play for Trump leading into the 2026 midterm elections. With the term-limited president frequently tied up with international crises, translating Trump’s zigzag economic policies to a skeptical public is a task that has largely fallen to Vance.
Though he spent much of his first 200 days in office learning the ropes of the vice presidency and securing his place in Trump’s orbit, Vance is increasingly seen as the future of the MAGA political movement.
The former Ohio senator built clout early on by carrying Trump’s controversial nominees across the finish line, helping persuade Republican senators to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and casting the tiebreaking vote. Over the summer, Vance helped shepherd the tax cut and spending law to passage, again casting the deciding vote on legislation that had lost GOP support over Medicaid cuts in his capacity as president of the Senate.
The bill that Trump signed into law July 4 expanded the child tax credit and included tax breaks on tips and overtime pay through 2028 – around the time of the next presidential election.
“I knew a lot of folks who depended on tips when I was growing up, a lot of single moms who waited tables who are now going to get a big tax cut because of this legislation,” Vance said in the interview.
Vance was selected for vice president in large part because of his ability to speak to Americans from different economic backgrounds, namely blue-collar workers in manufacturing-heavy states.
His childhood in Middletown, Ohio, formed the basis for the bestselling memoir turned Hollywood film “Hillbilly Elegy.” Vance served in the Marines, attended Yale Law School and worked with Silicon Valley tech companies before he won a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Those attributes will bode well for Vance in the future, former Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita said.
“But even more so, every single day spent in the Oval, and in the West Wing as vice president, is a level of additional experience that will continue to inform his approach on all things policy and political going into a potential bid for the presidency,” LaCivita added.
Vance learns the ropes
His outsider mentality has helped make Vance popular with Trump’s ultra-conservative base. He had been in Washington for less than two years when Trump picked him in 2024 to join the GOP ticket.
But his inexperience on the world stage has sometimes led to high-octane confrontations.
The most memorable moment of his vice presidency so far: an Oval Office face-off in February with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Vance said in an interview that he did “not necessarily” wish the blowup had occurred, although he maintained it was “useful for the American people” to see the discussion.
The leaders have since mended their relationship. But the last time Zelenskyy visited the Oval Office? Vance sat quietly on the couch.
“We’re pretty aligned with President Zelenskyy, even though we have some disagreements. We of course want to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” Vance told USA TODAY, striking a much different tone from his televised harangue in February.
Allies and advisers say Vance is now more comfortable as the nation’s second in command.
They also indicated that Vance has reverted to a supporting role after a series of explosive moments helped him score points with MAGA but left America’s allies feeling chafed, as when he lectured a hall full of European leaders in February and voiced support for Germany’s far-right AfD party.
He visited The Vatican and India in April and attended Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass in May. On that trip, he cleared the air with Zelenskyy at a private meeting in Rome.
Aggressive pace
If Trump is the closer then Vance is the implementer, wrapping up loose ends for a president who’s changing the national landscape at a breakneck pace, advisers to both men said.
“There’s so much more that the administration can do, and you just can’t take your marbles and go home. You’ve got 3½ more years. It’s exhausting. But there has to be that same level of intensity,” said Trump adviser LaCivita.
Absent Trump’s aggressive pace, LaCivita said, the political consequences for Republicans in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race could “be pretty devastating.”
One of the most important of those objectives will be holding on to the House of Representatives. Republicans have a slim majority, and history is working against them.
Maintaining control of the House will be vital for Vance’s strategy of securing his own political standing by racking up wins for Trump. His pathway to the White House is seen by political strategists as reliant on the public’s perception of Trump at the end of the administration.
“He has not hogged the spotlight. He’s been very willing to help in any particular role that the president has needed him on,” said former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who is running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina and has stepped down from his party role.
To that end, Vance has taken the lead on promoting the tax cut and spending bill. He has made stops in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin in the past two months. And his cadence is expected to pick up over the next few weeks.
Trump also is expected to make appearances at some point in support of the law. The president said this week at a Cabinet meeting that he would now be referring to the law as a “massive tax cut for the middle class.”
“You want to go into it and have a conversation about what is in it. And it’s important to have a conversation about what’s in the bill as opposed to what the bill is called,” LaCivita said. “And if you’re debating what the bill’s called, you’re playing their game. If we are debating what’s in it, then we’re fighting on our turf, and that’s where we want to be.”
A longtime adviser to Vance said the VP will also be campaigning directly for candidates as the midterms get closer, saying he will be a familiar face on the campaign trail come 2026.
Vance also is playing a key role in Trump’s bid to give the Republicans an edge in the midterms by redrawing congressional maps in red states.
He traveled to Indiana this month to discuss the idea with that state’s governor, Mike Braun, and spoke to Indiana legislators about the issue at a White House summit.
In the interview, Vance indicated he had not yet broadened his campaign to states such as Missouri and Ohio that are viewed by other Republicans as prime targets. He said he had not personally spoken to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine or Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe about the rare mid-decade redistricting race.
Trump’s midterm money man
Vance’s most consequential role ahead of the midterms may be as the party’s chief fundraiser. A unique arrangement provides him with access to donors who could help fund his expected presidential bid.
The RNC announced Vance would serve as finance chair in March. No sitting vice president has ever served in the role.
A longtime adviser to Vance cast the move as politically smart for White House, because the president cannot be expected to run the free world and constantly be doing fundraisers across the country.
Republicans had roughly $80 million in cash on hand at the end of June, far outpacing the $15 million Democrats had in the bank.
Vance does not have a set portfolio of issues in the same way other vice presidents have had, although Trump asked him to take on some other big-ticket items such as getting a TikTok deal done.
Trump has such confidence in Vance that he plugs him into some of the most important areas, former Trump campaign senior adviser and Trump ally Jason Miller said.
“While the president is busy in the White House trying to bring about world peace and secure the borders, the vice president is leading the charge on the fundraising in the midterms for the RNC,” Miller said.
A heartbeat away
JD Vance ready for presidency, but says Trump in ‘good health’
In an exclusive interview, Vice President JD Vance said while he is ready for the presidency, President Donald Trump is in “good health.”
Vance said in a recent appearance on the Ruthless Podcast that Trump encourages him to be involved in every aspect of governing. But he said Trump “bears more of the weight of responsibility.”
In the interview with USA TODAY, the vice president insisted he’d be ready to take the reins if need be. Trump, 79, is the oldest person to be inaugurated as president, and Vance, 41, is one of the youngest to serve as second in command.
“I’ve gotten a lot of good on-the-job training over the last 200 days,” Vance said. “And if, God forbid, there’s a terrible tragedy, I can’t think of better on-the-job training than what I’ve gotten over the last 200 days.”
He suggested he had spoken to his wife, Usha, about the prospect of another national campaign.
“I think she thinks what I think, which is, let’s focus on the job that we have right now. Let’s do as good a job as possible. And if that door opens later on, we’ll figure it out then,” Vance said.
Vance is already considered the heir apparent to Trump’s movement, whether he acknowledges his ambitions or not.
“The vice president is the future of the Republican Party and the MAGA movement,” said Miller, the former Trump campaign adviser.
Without endorsing his presumed 2028 bid directly, Trump political adviser LaCivita’s message to Vance was: Keep doing what you’re doing.
“Any Republican that has a vision of wanting to be the president in 2028, that’s not going to happen unless Donald Trump is successful, period.”
Contributing: Zac Anderson