JD Vance reveals Trump campaign’s plans for him, his strategy against Walz in exclusive interview
ABOARD TRUMP FORCE TWO – Sen. JD Vance has been Donald Trump’s VP pick for exactly one month, crisscrossing the country and speaking to voters directly about the GOP message and how everyday rural Americans – like those from where he grew up in Ohio – would benefit from their ticket.
On Wednesday, Vance sat down with The Post aboard the newly-redecorated “Trump Force Two” airplane and spoke about his future in the campaign and his efforts to focus on showing the critical salt-of-the-earth voters in middle-American swing states how Trump’s economic and other domestic policies are constructed with the middle class in mind.
“The campaign obviously wants me to spend a lot of time in the Industrial Midwest,” Vance said, noting he will do more rallies and press conferences in the critical swing state region. “The disproportionate amount of my time is going to be in these three states.”
His campaign stop in Michigan was indicative of how Vance has been using his Midwestern background to appeal to voters. He made several local stops around Grand Rapids, Mich., talking to voters, shaking hands and holding babies while being personal about his own family.
There, his Midwest charm and relatability shined as he told voters standing in a building filled with vintage cars that he wants a fourth child, and on stage, he expounded on the role his grandmother “Mamaw” played in his life.
“I was one of the lucky ones – I managed to achieve the American Dream. I managed to build a life because I had a Mamaw that was tough as nails,” he said in his speech.
Vance has stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, this week as well, rounding out the top battleground states in the region.
His Midwestern roots have played in his favor, as he’s focused on speaking to local reporters and voters – and making jokes about Ohio. The crowd in Byron Center was energized as Vance hit Vice President Kamala Harris again and again on the economy and the border, arguing that her policies are ravaging states like Michigan.
Trump’s advisers told reporters last week in West Palm Beach that they see Vance as another voice to spread Trump’s messaging.
He was chosen from a list of other potential VP candidates partly due to Donald Trump Jr., his friend, vouching for him as a loyal member of the MAGA movement. The younger Trump said in an Axios interview at the Republican National Convention that he thinks Vance has a “very high chance” of being elected as president in 2028, extending the Trump legacy movement.
Vance seemed genuinely surprised when The Post brought up the Trump Jr. prediction for 2028.
He said a presidential run has not been a conversation within the Trump team and that “we have to win first.”
But the 40-year-old did indicate some openness to running for the presidency, depending on what happens.
“I’m very focused on winning this race and I think if, you know – we’ll see where things go, but let’s win this race first,” Vance said.
Like Trump, Vance has been especially hammering Harris during the past week, and has been focusing less on her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – despite the Harris VP pick directly attacking him by making reference to a fake and lewd Democrat meme.
In light of the Walz attacks, Vance said he will not “fight fire with fire.”
“I don’t expect to personally go after him. I think everything that I’ve said about him, that I will say about him, I’ve already said and I’ll just keep repeating it,” Vance told The Post.
He will continue making reference to Walz mischaracterizing his military record, because the “stolen valor” “bothers” him, Vance said.
Instead of focusing on Walz, Vance went on, he will lean into Harris attacks, since that’s who is at the top of the ticket.
Vance’s name was added to the outside of Trump Force Two the day he was announced as Trump’s running mate. Inside, blue and white placards with messaging about Trump Agenda 47 like “drain the swamp of Washington corruption” are posted on the overhead luggage compartments and above the windows.
Vance first came into the spotlight after publishing his hit memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” that documented the difficulties of his family life and his local community in Ohio. He’s made with a lot of references to his Midwestern background throughout the campaign and both he and Trump have championed Vance’s accomplishment of achieving the American Dream despite the difficulties he faced.
One defining moment in his career was attending Yale Law School, as he described in his memoir. That’s where he met his wife Usha, and it was the accomplishment of graduating that partly spurred him to write the book.
As the Ivy Leagues experience some backlash over anti-Israel students protesting on campus and Walz implying that Vance is out of touch by going to an elite school, Vance said he still sees value in attending the prestigious schools — even if sometimes as a conservative it feels like “Russia or North Korea.”
Walz has used Vance’s elite schooling to denigrate the Ohio native in an apparent attempt to make him appear out of touch with the vitally important voters in swing states, painting him as a sort of east coast elitist – but Walz said Yale offered him opportunities he’d never before thought possible.
Going to an Ivy League school has the potential to “open up a lot of doors” and provide networking opportunities – especially for kids who grew up the way Vance did.
Still, he said it can be “isolating” for those who have “traditionally conservative views,” Vance said.
He argued the Ivy League campuses have become “very totalitarian” and when a place is 95% liberal and 5% conservative in its political direction “you have to start asking yourself if you’re living in Russia or North Korea” because “there’s something artificial there” in its makeup.
“I much rather my kids go to a place like Ohio State where they can get a fine education and I think they’d make friends with much more normal people,” he said, further endearing himself to heartland voters.
