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JD Vance said over the weekend that he “learned my lesson” on getting ahead of Donald Trump after accidentally announcing an abortion position Trump later disavowed. He might still have some work to do.
Vance’s nonstop media tour and willingness to jump into the fray on just about any topic has repeatedly led to the vice presidential nominee sketching in Trump’s vague policy positions himself. It has some allies worried that he’s overstepping his bounds.
“It’s never good for the vice president to be in front of the president,” one Republican senator said. “It’s just part of the learning experience for him.”
The most high profile example: Vance said in August that Trump would veto an abortion ban, but the former president said on the debate stage that he hadn’t spoken to his running mate about the issue and would not make that pledge.
Other remarks from the 40-year-old vice presidential pick have prompted questions about whether he might be freelancing: Trump is considering, but hasn’t yet embraced, Vance’s public pitch to offer a $5,000 child tax credit — an idea that could cost trillions of dollars if fully implemented.
Trump said in last week’s debate that he had “concepts of a plan” on health care, dancing around what’s been a sensitive topic for him — yet Vance offered up some key details just days later, including suggestions on “Meet The Press” that Republicans might again try to alter or roll back the Affordable Care Act’s protections for pre-existing conditions. He went into even further detail on Wednesday in North Carolina, floating major changes to the ACA’s approach to the chronically ill that wade into politically perilous territory.
His comments diverging or expanding on Trump’s thoughts are now prompting some to wonder: Is this what the campaign wants from Vance? Or is the young, populist up-and-comer overstepping his role and leaving his running mate’s campaign to answer for it?
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he wasn’t sure “whether it’s strategic or whether it’s just him getting ahead of the president.”
“JD does not lack confidence,” Cramer added. “So you’ve got somebody who’s super smart, super articulate, you know, not very experienced in the political world, who puts out details of big ideas. And some of those big ideas have been generally floated by Donald Trump and they may or may not be ready for the details. And that’s up to Donald Trump to determine.”
Trump’s team doesn’t seem worried about it, even as they haven’t directly endorsed some of the proposals Vance has been discussing on TV. A Trump campaign advisor told Semafor that their operation has a more formal process for rolling out official policy plans, adding that it isn’t “a slight against JD.”
“He’s not getting ahead of the campaign, it’s a lot of stuff that’s been discussed and none of it was surprising,” the advisor said. “I know there’s a narrative out there that he’s getting ahead of the campaign on some of this stuff, but he’s not.”
And surprisingly, some Republicans say it’s fine to have policy differences between the presidential nominee and the vice presidential nominee.
“President Trump is one of those that says, ‘hey tell ‘em what you think,’” said Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville. “I think it’s better to do it that way rather than try to get on the same page about everything. Sooner or later you’re going to screw something up.”
Internally, Vance is seen as an impressive communicator who has been especially strong on the Sunday shows — and his ability to articulate policy is seen as one of the benefits of picking him as a running mate. The Trump campaign bills Vance as a bulldog who can focus on the wonky issues in a way that Trump often avoids. In addition to his TV appearances, he’s been active on X, where he offered a point-by-point rebuttal of the Harris campaign’s entire policy page.
One person close to Trump’s side of the campaign suggested Vance was being given “space to follow a campaign plan” by playing in the policy weeds while the top of the ticket dealt with other issues.
“Vance and company are in constant contact and he’s responding to our own intention to focus more on policy,” one person close to the campaign told Semafor. “We would if these assassins would take a vacation.”
The View From The Hill
Vance’s fellow members of Congress have been taking note of the degree to which he’s personally driving news on the campaign — for better and worse.
Several Republicans interviewed for this story cited Vance’s relative inexperience in politics when asked about his performance.
“Trump is the top of the ticket, and he should follow his lead,” a second Republican senator said. “We really want them synched. We really want them on the same page. I think he’s just so eager.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming said Vance would recalibrate from any misstep.
“He’s the kind of guy who will self-correct if he catches himself getting out over his skis a little bit,” Lummis said. “Every week he’ll be a better candidate.”
Vance’s policy knowledge could matter a whole lot more around Congress after the election. Should Trump win, he is likely to be tasked with wrangling votes on Capitol Hill and visiting with GOP lawmakers on key agenda items.
It was a role former Vice President Mike Pence filled, though Pence experienced his own problems when it came to getting ahead of Trump on policy: He famously left Republicans with the impression that Trump would sign a spending bill after the 2018 midterms, only to see Trump refuse and force a partial government shutdown for 35 days.
The View From Team Vance
“President Trump and Senator Vance are totally aligned in their America First policy vision, and JD always follows President Trump’s lead on the issues,” William Martin, Vance’s spokesman, said in a statement. “Together, they will end the inflation crisis that’s crushing working class families, secure the wide open southern border, and bring peace and stability to a world that has been engulfed in chaos due to Kamala Harris’s weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda.”
The View From Democrats
Just as Trump’s campaign and allies are comfortable with Vance holding court on the national stage, Democrats seem equally happy for Vance to keep generating headlines every day until Election Day. Polling has typically shown that he’s personally unpopular compared with the Democratic ticket.
“He’s the gift that keeps on giving,” said one Senate Democrat.
Burgess' and Shelby's View
Since arriving in the Senate in 2023, Vance has shown a love for the freewheeling nature of the Capitol, riffing on in-depth policy topics in the halls. He also has had a prodigious social media and podcast output. He’s a relative newcomer to national politics and he may be learning that his words carry a lot more meaning as a proxy for Trump and the GOP writ large now that he’s the vice presidential pick.
Since becoming the vice presidential nominee, Vance has also been all-in on conducting interviews, doing over 115 interviews and press conferences as of Wednesday night, according to his team. Inevitably, that’s led to more in-depth policy discussions compared to, for example, Tim Walz, who has engaged with the media far less.
Ultimately, the most important aspect of this is how Trump feels about Vance: And the former president so far has been happy with his performance, reportedly describing him as someone who “goes everywhere,” “thinks while he’s talking,” and “talks fast.” Even after Trump remarked that Vance wasn’t speaking for him on abortion during the debate earlier this month, the campaign still sent Vance out into the spin room and had him on network shows to be interviewed.
Notable
Defending his recent pet-stealing claims, Vance’s spokesperson cited a woman in Springfield, Ohio who claimed immigrants may have taken her cat — but she ended up finding the animal safely in her basement, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Vance isn’t the only one who’s gotten ahead of Trump recently. His campaign staff initially said after the former president’s debate with Harris that he wanted a rematch — only to be undercut when he announced it wasn’t happening.
Trump can sometimes surprise his own side with his policy moves. This week, he came out for undoing a cap on the state and local tax deduction that he personally had signed into law.