"Vice President JD Vance's... comments about being prepared to assume the presidency in case of a 'terrible tragedy' befalling President Trump set tongues wagging."

"The timing of these remarks drew attention within the political landscape as keyboard warriors started connecting dots to the prominent bruise on Trump's right hand that went viral.... The story has generated substantial engagement on social media platforms, particularly on X. Below are some tweets...."

From "'Trump is Dead' trends on X: J D Vance's remark over US president sparks frenzy; Simpsons prediction adds fuel" (Times of India).

The current state of taunting on X.

pic.twitter.com/dBMncejFBI

— Trish A (@NtvSocialBtrfly) August 25, 2025

Monitoring the misdoings of J.D. Vance.

I think there are many news media outlets who'd love the honor of destroying J.D. Vance, so let's take a look at what's being thrown at him today:

1. "JD Vance’s team had water level of Ohio river raised for family’s boating trip/Exclusive: Incident raises questions of exploitation of public services, but Secret Service says it was requested for 'safe navigation'" (Guardian). That's not the Ohio River, just the Little Miami River, and the "source with knowledge of the matter who communicated with the Guardian anonymously alleged that the outflow request for the Caesar Creek Lake was not just to support the vice-president’s Secret Service detail, but also to create 'ideal kayaking conditions.'"

2. "A dinner for senior administration officials at Vice President JD Vance's residence to discuss topics including the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case has been canceled after news of it leaked, a source familiar with the matter said. A spokesman for Vance said the dinner, first reported by CNN, had not been planned. 'There was never a supposed meeting scheduled at the Vice President's residence to discuss Epstein strategy,' said Vance spokesman William Martin" (Reuters).

3. "'South Park' Humiliates JD Vance as Donald Trump’s Pathetic Manbaby" (Daily Beast): "Two weeks after introducing President Donald Trump as a Saddam Hussein-esque figure having a love affair with literal Satan, Season 27’s second episode introduced Vance as Trump’s baby-faced servant, dressed and voiced much like the character of Tattoo from the 1970s TV show Fantasy Island. Tiny Vance... walks into Trump and Satan’s bedroom and dutifully asks, 'Would you like me to apply the baby oil to Satan’s a-----e, boss?'"

What this shows: Vance is doing just swimmingly. Smooth kayaking today for the VP.

JD Vance's elegant digital rhetoric.

JD Vance just threw up the MIDDLE FINGER live on national TV.

“In D.C., they have this thing where, I think it means we’re number one, all the pink-haired people throw up this sign…” proceeds to flip off the camera

You can’t make this up. The Vice President of the United… pic.twitter.com/PPqlLHHLrl

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) June 25, 2025

"CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE! It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed their in progress, final missions!)..."

"... for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED! Officially, Iran will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 12th Hour, Israel will start the CEASEFIRE and, upon the 24th Hour, an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. During each CEASEFIRE, the other side will remain PEACEFUL and RESPECTFUL. On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, 'THE 12 DAY WAR.' This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will! God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and GOD BLESS THE WORLD!"

Writes President Trump, on Truth Social.

ADDED:

.@VP reacts to the Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement announced by President Trump: "The President without ... having a single American casualty obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. We are now in a place where we weren't a week ago." pic.twitter.com/a5G88FfKuE

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 23, 2025

"We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program," said JD Vance.

Quoted in "Vance says U.S. 'not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear program'/President Donald Trump said Saturday night that the U.S. had dropped bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites, the first time the U.S. has directly attacked Iran" (NBC News).

I'm interested in that rhetorical device: "We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program." 

I believe it's called paradiastole — or redescription. Other examples: 

George W. Bush, 2003: "We’re not occupying Iraq. We’re liberating it."

Barack Obama, 2013: "This is not a war on terror. It’s a campaign against specific networks like al-Qaeda."

Bill Clinton, 1999: "This is not a war. It’s a humanitarian intervention."

Benjamin Netanyahu, 2014: "We’re not fighting the Palestinian people. We’re fighting Hamas.”

Ronald Reagan, 1980s: "We’re not waging war against Nicaragua. We’re supporting freedom fighters."

How is Gavin Newsom in debates?

I wondered, reading this quote from Newsom: "Since you’re so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face. Let’s debate. Time and place?"

He wrote that on X, and I'm reading it this morning in "Vance Blames L.A. Violence on California Democrats and Disparages Padilla/Vice President JD Vance said during a Los Angeles stop that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass had encouraged protesters to engage in violence. He also criticized Senator Alex Padilla and called him by the wrong name" (NYT).

Maybe Vance should take Newsom up on that offer. It would focus attention on the administration's arguments. It's not as if the Vice President would have to go on to other debates with other other opponents on all sorts of issues. This is the Governor of California, and immigration enforcement and opposition to it are centered in California. This could be a unique debate.

How would the debate go? I asked Grok to compare the debating skill of the 2 men and to predict the outcome: here. (NOTE: bad link is fixed).

Please think it through before taking my poll:

Should Vance take up Newsom's challenge and debate?

Yes

No

 

pollcode.com free polls

JD Vance — signing onto Bluesky — starts a conversation about the Supreme Court's upholding of a state law banning transgender drugs and surgery for minors.

First, the site takes him down, but he's back up, and they're saying that happened because the account was flagged as a possible impersonation. I don't know what Bluesky's rules are about that, because when I searched for "JD Vance," I got various un-cancelled accounts that look like impersonations:

The one with the blue check is the real one, and maybe those others are marked clearly enough. The third account on that list, if you click through, says, in small print "(parody account lol)."

Anyway, what I'm more concerned about is whether JD Vance was able to make himself available for respectful conversation on Bluesky. Here's his set of 3 posts, which highlight Justice Thomas's expression of skepticism about "experts."

Vance says hi like this: "Hello Bluesky, I've been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I'm thrilled to be here to engage with all of you." I can see that some people are reading that as trolling. It's easy to hear sarcasm. 

Vance continues with a block of text from Thomas and the statement "I found Justice Thomas's concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating. He argues that many of our so-called 'experts' have used bad arguments and substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth." And he adds: "I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids. What do you think?"

Does Vance get the "common sense political discussion and analysis" he says, perhaps sarcastically, that he wants?

"I just think it's a huge mistake for the world's wealthiest man... to be at, at, at this war with the world's most powerful man who I think is doing more to save the country than anybody — I mean, I'm 40 years old — anybody in my lifetime."

"You think about it, it's a guy who not even a year ago, nearly took a bullet in the process of campaigning, went back on the horse the next day. And if you look — obviously I'm biased — but you look at what we've done on the border, you look at what we've done with trade — fighting back against a generation of theft of the American dream, which is what the president's trade policies are starting to do. I just think you've got to have some respect for him and say, look, yeah, we don't have to agree on every issue I'm talking about. If you're Elon Musk, you don't have to agree with this on every issue. But is this war actually in the interest of the country? I don't think so."

Said JD Vance, talking to Theo Von. Audio and transcript here, at Podscribe. YouTube here.

Vance continues:

"I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly."

"And so that's not because I hate the migrants or I'm motivated by grievance, that's because I'm trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation. And I don't think that can happen if you have too much immigration too quickly."

Said JD Vance on the new episode of Ross Douthat's "Interesting Times" podcast — audio and transcript at Podscribe.

Douthat was challenging him to coordinate his political thinking with his Catholicism. To quote a bit more of what Vance said:

"This is a very significant choice, because it’s a vote against America since he has been a leading opponent of Donald Trump."

Said Franca Giansoldati, "a Vatican expert at Italy’s Il Messaggero newspaper," quoted in "Who is Robert Prevost? New Pope hit out at Trump administration weeks ago/Robert Prevost, now Leo XIV, is the first American chosen to lead the Catholic Church, having steered a moderate path with the Augustinian mission in Peru" (London Times).

How did Prevost, now Leo, "hit out"? J.D. Vance, justifying the adminstration's immigration policy, had said, "There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritise the rest of the world. A lot of the ­far-left has completely inverted that." In response, on X, Prevost reposted a link to an article titled "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others." And — with respect to the treatment of ­Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Prevost retweeted "Do you not see the ­suffering? Is your conscience not ­disturbed? How can you stay quiet?"

We discussed that Vance quote on this blog back on February 2, here. A podcaster, Rory Stewart, had said "Nowhere does Jesus suggest that love is to be prioritised in concentric circles. His love is universal."

Vance had responded to Stewart: "Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone? This false arrogance drives so much elite failure over the last 40 years. Rory Stewart thinks he has an IQ of 130 when it’s really 110.'"

I'd said: "It's not a question of what Rory really thinks but what Jesus really said. What IQ does Vance ascribe to Jesus?"

"The Trump phenomenon could be dismissed as a cult of personality, but Luntz believes otherwise."

"'You say to me, when Trump leaves, does this go away? I’ll say to you, absolutely not, because of JD Vance,' he says. Vance’s reputation among the Maga faithful has grown since his assured performance in the vice-presidential debate with Tim Walz, Luntz says. 'He presented an ideology behind the Trump cult of personality. Vance found a way to take all the individual aspects of Trump’s policies and put them in a way that will outlast Trump. It was masterful. This is also part of the de-alignment — now there is an ideology and it’s not just Trump’s persona.'"

From "America’s top pollster: What Trump voters think now surprises me/Frank Luntz says the new political reality of the US — and the world — can be summarised in one word" (London Times).

We were just laughing at Frank Luntz yesterday, here.

He's got the touch.

J.D. Vance:

"As a boy, he was intelligent, deeply religious and loved to dance the tango."

"When he was 16, Jorge was rushing to meet friends but paused at the Basilica of St. Joseph in Buenos Aires, feeling an urge to go inside. In the sanctuary, it felt as though 'someone grabbed me from inside,' he said, adding, 'Right there I knew I had to be a priest.'... Francis died on Monday at 7:35 a.m., less than a day after blessing the faithful who had gathered for an Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square. He appeared on a balcony on Sunday, looking frail, and after blessing the crowd, he deferred to a Vatican aide to address the crowd on his behalf...."

From the NYT obituary for Pope Francis.

There's also this: "Francis repeatedly sought to stand up to nationalism. During the U.S. presidential election, he suggested that Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate, was 'not Christian' because of his preference for building walls rather than bridges. Mr. Trump responded: 'For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful. I am proud to be a Christian.'"

ADDED: Francis had seemed to be doing better but perhaps he was only determined — massively determined — to make a strong showing for Easter (and to target the United States for criticism over its treatment of migrants):

"Vance in Rome trying to meet the Pope? What a theatrical performance. Hypocrite. Viper."

That's the 3rd most highly rated comment at the WaPo article "Vance meets with pope as Francis’s Easter message decries ‘logic of fear’/The visit at the Vatican brought together the ailing head of the Catholic church and a high-profile convert who has criticized the pope’s social teachings."

Second most highly rated comment: "I’m surprised Vance didn’t burst into flames."

Most highly rated: "Vance is just one of many fake religious politicians. They run around boasting of their faith, but practice none of the Christian values Jesus and the bible preached."

And here's the "logic of fear" statement in the Pope's Easter message: "How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants. I appeal to all those in positions of political responsibility in our world not to yield to the logic of fear which only leads to isolation from others, but rather to use the resources available to help the needy, to fight hunger and to encourage initiatives that promote development. These are the ‘weapons’ of peace: weapons that build the future, instead of sowing seeds of death."

Trump seeks to excise "divisive" ideology from the Smithsonian Institution.

Read the text of his "Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores Truth and Sanity to American History."  Excerpts:

The Order directs the Vice President, who is a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to work to eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.

What was happening at the zoo?! 

More generally, how do you decide what is "improper, divisive, or anti-American"? I'm sure some will say that it's improper, divisive, and anti-American to sanitize race out of the presentation of our history and culture.

Does the order step down from that abstraction and get specific as it discusses enforcement of the Trumpian vision?

"Democrats have struggled to craft any sort of effective message of opposition to the second Trump Administration."

"One recent round of video clips featuring the speeches of Democratic senators was roundly mocked for repeating tired talking points. In the absence of anything more galvanizing, the formula 'Trump Take _____'—fill in the blank with 'egg,' 'cancer research,' or 'Social Security'—is, as [video editor Michael] Sweeney put it, 'sort of self-consciously stupid but at least feels like you’re landing a punch.' Another favorite target of late is Vice-President J. D. Vance. Vance hadn’t made much of an impression in the new Administration until he helped Trump berate the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.... [T]he meme machine went to work: Vance as Humpty Dumpty; Vance as a toddler with a propeller hat and a lollipop; Vance as a hippie troubadour with a neckbeard and a mop of curly hair...."

From "Resisting Trump 2.0 with Brain-Rot Memes/We participate in political memes to express our anxiety that whatever is coming next might be even more chaotic than what is already happening" (The New Yorker).

Key phrase: "In the absence of anything more galvanizing."

ADDED: Here's my earlier post about the JD Vance images, "Tell me about the social media meme that's just different images of JD Vance." That has an embedded tweet from Vance himself, passing along one of the images. As I said in the comments there: "I think this works in favor of JD Vance. His antagonists probably thought he was thin skinned and would demand respect (like the respect he demanded that Zelensky show to Trump). Now the meme is making him a pop culture icon and a standout in the fight for the 2028 GOP nomination. It's in the tradition of Trump, whose appearance and personality have been subject to endless foolery for decades."

"The idea that your marriage is your own (secular, individual) business is the kind of thing that bedevils religious conservatives."

"One imagines [JD] Vance gasping in horror at Mlotek’s account of the 'airiness' with which she makes her wedding vows, recalling 'how easy it was to swear I would want what I had'—as if marriage might be a commitment to one’s desires rather than a commitment to another person, or a role in a community. Reactionary and revolutionary views of marriage alike offer narrative satisfactions that the liberal view seems to lack. Eulogizing a marriage undertaken in this spirit presents a storytelling challenge: it requires inventing the stakes yourself. Mlotek—like many brides and grooms writing custom vows—doesn’t quite pull it off. But she does make privacy and its place in love feel idealistic and almost subversive. Her book is subtitled 'A Memoir of Romance and Divorce,' and her reticence is perhaps the most romantic thing about it, testifying to an abiding intimacy that transcends any legal relationship. After she and her husband decide to separate, she manages to avoid telling most of her family and friends for nearly a year...."

Writes Molly Fischer, in "Who Gets to Define Divorce/The battle for custody of a contested institution" (The New Yorker).

Mlotek = Haley Mlotek, author of "No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce" (commission earned).

Idealistic and subversive privacy in love... but you can still write a memoir about it... when the love dissipates beyond mere airiness and into utter nonexistence.

The aforementioned JD Vance is also a memoirist, as the New Yorker article pauses to say: "In 'Hillbilly Elegy,' his parents’ separation is the wellspring of childhood suffering; his grandparents’ home is the one source of stability, and he idealizes their volatile union." For the record, Mlotek and her erstwhile husband had no children, or even pets.

“I just hate bailing out the Europeans again"/"I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It’s PATHETIC.”

Said JD Vance/Pete Hegseth, quoted in "Now Europe Knows What Trump’s Team Calls It Behind Its Back: 'Pathetic'/Trump officials have demanded more European military spending and questioned the continent’s values. Leaked messages show the depth of the rift" (NYT).

Wouldn't want that to get out, now, would you? 

"Tell me about the social media meme that's just different images of JD Vance."

For the annals of Things I Asked Grok.

From the answer: "This phenomenon has gained massive traction as of early March 2025.... The meme trend kicked off in earnest around October 2024, when an X user posted an edited image of Vance with slightly rounder cheeks, captioning it, 'For every 100 likes, I will turn J.D. Vance into a progressively apple-cheeked baby.'... What’s notable is the meme’s bipartisan appeal.... Vance himself has weighed in.... As of today, March 8, 2025, the JD Vance meme shows no signs of fading...."

pic.twitter.com/rPloNGHLej

— JD Vance (@JDVance) March 8, 2025

ADDED: That image relies on the Leonardo DiCaprio "Pointing Meme":