CNN
—
Over the past 10 days, Vice President JD Vance put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on notice, rattled the confidence of century-old allies in Western Europe during his first foreign trip, decamped to Capitol Hill to help in delicate budget talks and delivered a spirited defense of the Trump administration’s first month to a gathering of conservatives outside the nation’s capital.
“I’m in a good place right now,” Vance told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday as he acknowledged jet lag from his whirlwind stretch. “I got some sleep last night.”
The vice president’s frenetic activity in recent days is a departure from the transition, when he was rarely seen in public, instead operating quietly behind the scenes. And even after Vance was sworn in, his relative lack of visibility came as Elon Musk’s appearances with President Donald Trump fueled chatter that the tech billionaire had supplanted the vice president in the White House pecking order.
But Vance lately has stepped forward in a more prominent way, asserting his role within the administration. As the second-in-command, he’s quickly assembled a portfolio of responsibilities that align with the traditional role – international representative, congressional liaison and leading surrogate – all while navigating a White House defined by Trump’s unpredictable and unconventional approach.
“JD is President Trump’s Swiss Army knife,” a close Vance adviser told CNN. “Whatever Trump needs at the time, that’s the role JD fills.”
In interviews, he’s an aggressive advocate and chief explainer for Trump, a role he sharpened during the campaign. Vance is also charting his own path. On social media, he has maintained an active and provocative presence, a style his team suggests is befitting of the first millennial to hold the office.
But his outspokenness in his first month has not come without controversy. His assertion in a post on X that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate powers” sparked concern from constitutional scholars that the president might ignore judicial rulings. (Trump has since said he intends to “follow the law,” though he raised a new round of fears with a cryptic social media post: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”)
Vance’s citation of Catholic doctrine to justify Trump’s immigration crackdown drew stern rebukes from within his own faith, including Pope Francis.
And Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna called out Vance for pushing back against the dismissal of a 25-year-old staffer in the Department of Government Efficiency who appeared to be linked to an online account that posted the phrase “normalize Indian hate.” Khanna is Indian, as is Vance’s wife. (Trump later told reporters that he didn’t know about the DOGE staffer’s remarks or Vance’s response, but said, “I’m with the VP.”)
Within the White House, Vance’s early movements have been well received. Those close to the vice president say he has been intimately involved in major decisions as a key member of the brain trust. Trump and Vance talk daily and regularly meet for lunch, as they did on Friday, or in the Oval Office to catchup.
After Vance stunned the world with his first major speech as vice president, during which he threw into question US support for Europe while speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Trump was quick to back him up. “He made a very good speech, actually a very brilliant speech,” the president said last week.
But asked in a recent interview by Fox News’s Bret Baier if he viewed Vance as his successor, Trump offered a quick, “No,” before adding, “but he’s very capable.”
“So far I think he’s doing a fantastic job,” Trump said. “It’s too early.”
The answer sharply diverged from his campaign’s stock response to last year’s veepstakes buzz. Then, the campaign insisted Trump was on the prowl for “a strong leader who will make a great President for eight years after his next four-year term concludes.”
Vance’s allies have downplayed Trump’s answer and expressed displeasure that the topic was broached so soon after the term began.
“Trump is two weeks into the administration. In what universe is Trump answering that question in a different way?” one adviser posited. “If Trump answered ‘yes’ to that question, it’d be an even bigger story. He would immediately be a lame duck.”
But the exchange nevertheless exposed an uncomfortable reality of the four-year Trump-Vance partnership. Tethered to a president barred by the Constitution from running again, Vance will be forced to confront his political future much sooner than his predecessors who entered the White House with a first-term president.
Joel Goldstein, law professor at Saint Louis University and one of the nation’s foremost chroniclers of the vice presidency, told CNN that Vance’s first term “is really like people’s second term as vice president.”
“I think that impacts the way in which other politicians may interact with him,” Goldstein said. “If you’re thinking of someone as a first-term VP who may run in eight years, it’s different than if you’re thinking the game is going to be on pretty soon, especially if you’re interested in running.”
Trump’s administration is full of people who have publicly and privately expressed presidential aspirations, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. There are other Republicans across the country, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who would be eager to step up in 2028 if Vance falters.
TikTok’s fate hung over an Oval Office meeting in the days after Trump, in one his first acts after taking office, temporarily halted a Biden-era ban on the Chinese social media platform.
With the clock ticking on the 75-day pause — and without an American buyer to resolve national security concerns and appease ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company — Trump suddenly turned to Vance with a pointed directive.
“Trump said to JD, ‘Hey you’re a (venture capitalist) guy. You’re a good dealmaker. You get on this,’” according to a source familiar with the exchange.
The episode was illustrative of the reality facing all vice presidents: Vance’s success will be dictated in part by which assignments Trump hands him.
Vance has so far avoided being tasked an issue with potentially perilous political implications that caused turbulence for his predecessors. Former President Joe Biden, for example, tapped his vice president, Kamala Harris, to address the root causes of migration into the United States, an assignment that ultimately opened her up to criticism from Trump and Vance during the 2024 campaign. Trump handed off oversight of the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to his first vice president, Mike Pence, thrusting his No. 2 into a crisis that ultimately doomed their administration.
Vance has already encountered one of the distinct challenges of serving as a chief surrogate for Trump: a president known for shifting positions without warning.
Before Inauguration Day, Vance stated that those responsible for violence during the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned — a declaration that left the vice president appearing out of step when Trump later granted blanket clemency to more than 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the riot.
A similar rift emerged on abortion policy. During the campaign, Vance asserted that Trump would veto any federal abortion ban that reached his desk. Weeks later, during a televised debate, Trump publicly undercut his running mate, stating that Vance did not speak for him, only for Trump to eventually say he would veto such a ban.
“The reality is it can be a tight rope with being asked to be the president’s central spokesperson and I think that JD does that exceptionally well,” said Marc Short, who served as Pence’s chief of staff. “But it’s always going to be difficult because the president can be whimsical in his positions.”
The White House has yet to provide an update on Vance’s efforts to resolve the long-running dispute over TikTok’s ownership, a matter that remains a priority for Trump. While the president once sought to ban the app, he ultimately retreated, recognizing during the campaign its value as a conduit to young voters.
Trump also tapped Vance to rally support on Capitol Hill for his Cabinet picks. Early on, that meant Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon, both shadowed by past allegations of sexual misconduct that they denied. Gaetz’s bid to become attorney general was swiftly scuttled by Senate Republicans. But Hegseth, a favorite in Trump’s inner circle, was buoyed by Vance’s lobbying.
His role in helping salvage a nominee on the brink earned him a larger assignment: shepherding the rest of the president’s picks through their confirmation battles.
As of Friday morning, the Senate had approved of 18 of Trump’s 22 nominees.
