JD Vance is preparing to become the first millennial vice president

NEW YORK (AP) — As he prepares to become the nation’s first millennial vice president, JD Vance is already the heir apparent to the “Make America Great Again” movement.

Vance has not been assigned a specific White House portfolio like some of his predecessors. While he has longstanding interests, from technology and disaster relief to immigration, people close to the former Ohio senator say he sees his role as doing what is necessary to best help President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration is implementing his agenda. He is also expected to be a liaison to Capitol Hill, leveraging the relationships he built during his two years in the Senate.

“I would say that JD is the guy who will close any loophole or be as beneficial to the administration and be as beneficial to President Trump as possible,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a friend and ally.

Moreno said Vance would also continue the role he played during the campaign as Trump’s chief messenger, defending him on television and sparring with reporters.

“His most important job is to be out there and be President Trump’s pit bull,” Moreno said. When Trump needs someone to defend him or his policies, he added, “JD will be the guy who leads the troops to get President Trump’s back.”

It’s been an astonishing eight years for the 40-year-old “Hillbilly Elegy” author, who has transformed from a former venture capitalist and fierce Trump critic. Vance will be a critical part of not just Trump’s return to the White House, but the future of his political movement. With Trump barred by the Constitution from running in 2028, Vance is a natural successor.

But first he has to stay in Trump’s good graces.

Vance overcame a rocky start

Trump’s decision to tap Vance when his No. 2 landed with a bang at first.

Vance faced a barrage of criticism for her earlier remarks deriding women who were not parents as “childless cat ladies” and for suggesting that those without biological children should not be in positions of power. Headlines panned him as the least popular vice presidential candidate in modern history.

But Vance soon delivered a highly praised performance during the vice presidential debate and established himself as a top Trump surrogate, someone who regularly answered reporters’ questions and sat for interviews with businesses of all kinds. He once appeared in three Sunday broadcasts in a single day.

Vance’s willingness to wade into sometimes hostile territory earned Trump praise.

“He’s a cool guy, isn’t he?” Speaking during his election night victory speech, Trump described how he had instructed Vance to “go into the camp of the enemy.” While some Republicans might have resisted going on CNN or talking to The New York Times, Trump said Vance is “really looking forward to it, and then he just goes in and completely wipes them out.”

Vance, he added, “turned out to be a good choice. I got a little heat at first, but he was—I knew the brain was good, about as good as it gets.”

A cautionary tale

It didn’t go so well for Trump’s last vice president.

Mike Pence, unfailingly loyal to his boss, ended his term fleeing a violent mob on January 6, 2021 after he refused to go along with Trump’s plan to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump would not forgive Pence, blaming him for their loss and turning legions of his supporters against his second-in-command. Pence would end his own bid for the 2024 nomination months before the first votes were cast after struggling to raise money or attract significant crowds.

“Pence and Trump started on the same footing, with the same high expectations, and had a great partnership,” said Devin O’Malley, the vice president’s former press secretary and senior adviser to his campaign. O’Malley emphasized that he didn’t expect things to end the same way for Vance, who he said “seems to hit all the marks to be successful in the role.”

While Trump and Pence were always said to be close before their split, they had very different personalities. Trump chose Pence, someone he barely knew, in part to reassure evangelical Christians worried about Trump’s behavior and to win over other Republicans skeptical of his outsider candidacy.

Aides have long described Trump and Vance as true friends who enjoy each other’s company. The two talk almost every day on the phone, in person or via text.

Unlike Pence, Vance is also ideologically aligned with Trump on major issues ranging from trade to the use of US forces abroad. He is close to Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and has developed strong relationships with incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, senior adviser Stephen Miller and others.

He also has ties to the new generation of tech billionaires in Trump’s inner circle, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who once employed Vance and supported his rise in politics.

While 2028 is years away, for now Vance is seen by many as the natural torchbearer for the MAGA movement, even as other Republicans with national ambitions circle nearby.

Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller called him “the future of the Republican Party and this movement that President Trump has started.”

“I really see him as being the person who is going to be the flag bearer going forward, after President Trump,” he said at a recent gathering of business leaders.

A new generation takes power

When he is sworn in on Monday, Vance will make history as the first millennial to serve in the role and the first vice president in nearly two decades with young children.

Late. Shelley Moore Capito, RW.Va., recently traveled with Vance to North Carolina to meet with victims of Hurricane Helene. She suggested that his relative youth on the national stage gave Vance certain advantages, including a comfort with social media and different communication style.

“I think because he’s younger, he has a boldness that — with the exception of President Trump — as you get older, I think your boldness is clouded by lessons learned over the years,” Capito said .

People close to Vance like to emphasize that he’s an ordinary person — “as normal a guy as there’s ever been in politics,” Moreno said — with a working-class background.

“He wants to wear sweatshirts. He roots for sports teams. . . . He’s a guy’s guy. He’s a brother,” said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, who has advised Vance informally on cultural and family issues since he began to run for the Senate. “He wants a beer with you. He wants to watch a football game with you. He will tease you, he will tear you. He is also going to work hard and be serious when he needs to be.”

In fact, after his beloved Ohio State clinched a berth in the football national championship game, Vance took to social media to lament his dilemma. The Buckeyes play Notre Dame for the title in Atlanta on Monday night, hours after he and Trump are to be sworn in.

“Hopefully everyone is cool with me skipping the Inauguration so I can go to the national title game,” Vance joked at Xthat shares a fake cartoon with two red buttons — “Attend your own inauguration” and “Go watch the Buckeyes win a national title” — and a sweaty superhero torn between them.

It was the kind of banter any sports fan could relate to, and the latest polish to his regular guy persona.

But Vance is scheduled to stay in Washington — even if he wants to check his phone at the Liberty Ball.