It was interesting to see J.D. Vance become Donald Trump’s mini me surrogate. It was apparent that he would be the choice for vice president and we correctly predicted that here at PolitiZoom. Not that you needed the skills of Nostradamus to parse that one. The final three realistic candidates were Marco Rubio, Doug Burgum and J.D. Vance. Rubio would have been too much *competition* for Trump. He’s vastly more experienced than Trump and so that would not have worked. Burgum was too much of an old school Republican and while that had its charms, (the old GOP bowing to Trump as their new God) Vance had the advantage of knowing how to do the snarling MAGA bit on TV, coupled with the fact that he, too, is a neophyte to politics.
So Vance it was. And Vance had another quality as well, which isn’t spoken of much in MAGA circles but which is glaringly apparent: He is even more tactless and tone deaf than Trump is. And Trump knows that. Never forget, Trump has one thing going for him and so far it has been enough — and that is that he knows television. He understands what plays on TV and what doesn’t play on TV and he knows that Vance, like any third rate actor, has a limited range. Vance has zero sense of humor and sub-zero ability to read a room. Here those two qualities play out in abundance. And this is why Trump chose Vance to keep falling on his butt as a distraction from Trump doing the exact same thing daily, but with far greater consequence.
Vance: Here's the thing. The cameras are all on; anything I say, no matter how crazy, she has to smile, laugh, and celebrate it. pic.twitter.com/KO36G1D7ju
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 14, 2025
That’s not the amusement Vance thinks it is. But it is true and it says a lot not only about the plight of Usha Vance but where the entire Republican party finds itself nowadays. No matter how crazy, they all have to cosign on it, and whoop it up. Everybody from Usha Vance to the lowest elected Republican official there is, are all fiddlers while Mad King Donald burns the place down.
If you use your wife as a prop it makes it you look like a fool and your wife like a mindless idiot. Did she sign a contract that she wouldn’t talk until she can properly divorce you?
— Amber (@amber_Clapper) March 14, 2025
The thing that I find insulting is that Usha Vance is a lawyer and a Yale law grad in her own right. You never heard Bill talk about Hillary this way or Barack talk about Michelle like this. And all three couples met in law school. Here, Vance is deliberately casting Usha into the role of Adoring Wife — which maybe she is. But that is most certainly not the full measure of the woman. She has achievements beyond simply being married to this slug. This is all a little too Handmaid’s Tale for me.
At least publicly. I don’t think Richard Nixon would have said that to Pat and I know Ronnie Raygun would not have said that to Nancy. There was an attitude of acknowledged respect for one’s spouse, not some tittering school boy, “Tee hee, no matter how crazy I am, she has to pretend it’s all great and wonderful, because I’m her big shot hubby.”
Vance does not have the personality to have ever gotten this far in the Republican party of yore. Only in MAGA, by having mastered the right-wing media snarl that he does, did he get where he is.
And where is that, exactly? Trump’s successor? The heir to MAGA? Let’s see what happens. Depending upon how badly Trump melts down, that’s how we’ll determine how radioactive the people around him will get. During the Zelensky dust up in the Oval Office, the only person who got criticized worse than Trump was Vance. The Wall Street Journal shish kabobed him, told him that was no behavior “for a wannabe diplomat.”
And Trump may savage the Wall Street Journal, saying that they “don’t know what they’re doing or saying.” But any way you cut it, Trump is here for the short game. Even if by some sorcery he persuaded Congress to modify the Constitution so he could run for a third term, the man simply is not going to live forever. Not in his condition. I can see Joe Biden living well into his 90’s because he takes care of himself, but not Trump.
So Trump can trash the Journal but the likes of Vance or anybody who is going to be around for the long haul, cannot ignore what they have to say.
Meanwhile, Vance is rapidly replacing Ron DeSantis as the most cringeworthy Republican with presidential aspirations. And we could end up with a *president” Vance. Do not rule that out. Trump is just one more Person Woman Man Camera TV midnight ride to Walter Reed away from such a thing.
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Yo kinda have to hand it to the republicans.
Charged to find Trump’s replacement and challenged to find someone worse, they said “Hold my beer” and did.
It has to be like death by a thousand cuts to her self esteem and soul. We’ll see how long she puts up with it.
I hope Usha dumps his fat butt divorces him, gets full custody of the kids,and writes a tell-all. She is definitely the brains in that family.
I don’t know if he could run for president successfully. He has the charisma of a Hefty trash bag the day before garbage collection. He wears more eyeliner than a drag queen (I am.only surprised he isn’t wearing blue eye shadow and false eye lashes). He has the earmth and charm of great white shark. And Usha is a definite handicap for a Republican. I doubt the South will ever accept a brown-skinned woman as FLOTUS. They still claim Michelle as a transman at best.