JD Vance Distances Himself From Trump

VP soft-launches his campaign for president

Vice President JD Vance has been on a whirlwind media tour this past week, selling the Iran War and other administration policies. Except there’s a twist. From appearing on The View to venturing deep into MAGA country, Vance is taking a different tone from the rest of the team.

Consider Vance’s criticism of Israel advocates who are “always conflating criticism of a particular government with Jew hatred; because if everything is Jew hatred, then nothing is Jew hatred,” as he told The Blaze. Vance is clearly trying to establish his identity and voice to run for president in 2028. In that he has been subtly but unmistakably distancing himself from Donald Trump, aiming to build a distinct political identity.

I watched all of his recent media appearances (subscribe below so I can do more of this work, or chip in via my GoFundMe here) and here are the examples that stand out.

1. Apologies Are Legal Again

“You always have to be able to acknowledge when you’re right and when you’re wrong,” Vance said in an interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast.

I had to laugh when I heard him say this: does he know who he works for? Of course he does; and Donald Trump is obviously who this backhanded remark is directed toward. Nothing describes Trump’s political brand less than the admission of error. And in the context of the broader MAGA movement, it reads as a quiet critique.

While Trump treats backtracking as a fatal weakness, Vance has spent his entire book tour for Communion leaning directly into public mea culpas as a sign of intellectual humility and Christian grace. It’s hard to imagine a clearer attempt at drawing a contrast with Trump, who is like the seven deadly sins thrown into a blender and poured into a suit.

2. Walking Back the Catcall

On The View, Vance apologized for his infamous comment about “childless cat ladies,” calling it his “most boneheaded comment.”

The “cat ladies” remark was a cruel and frankly weird thing to say, so the apology might seem obvious. But again, try to imagine Trump apologizing for literally anything he’s said. I can’t even picture it.

3. Different Styles

“The president and I certainly have way different styles.”

This remark was made by Vance while discussing immigration policy on The Diary of a CEO podcast. When pressed on Trump’s history of using highly inflammatory, broad-stroke language — such as labeling Mexican “illegal” immigrants as rapists and murderers — Vance again distanced himself.

Immigration, of course, is Trump’s signature issue; so choosing this subject as an example of their “different styles” is particularly striking.

4. Post-Cynicism

Vance also sough to position himself as an empathetic alternative to the hyper-polarized grievance engine that so fuels Trumpism.

“I’d rather be too charitable than too cynical about human beings,” he said on Diary of a CEO. “I do think that you see people in politics who fundamentally just really hate the people on the other side. That’s just not me.”

In a political ecosystem that Trump built on explicit, binary hostility toward his political enemies — literally labeling them domestic terrorists — Vance’s declaration that he doesn’t hate the other side is an intentional departure. It allows him to play the role of a big-tent populist who can talk to hostile audiences — like the hosts of The View — while Trump remains siloed in conservative media echo chambers.

5. Israel

Donald Trump’s friction with Benjamin Netanyahu usually plays out as raw, behind-the-scenes drama, complete with leaked phone calls and personal cursing sessions. Vance, however, is test-driving a much more calculated rhetorical script.

“I feel quite confident that, you know, they are the junior partner, we're the senior partner, we're the world superpower — that's the way that it works,” Vance told Diary of a CEO (along with similar remarks on The Megyn Kelly Show).

Whether these words will ever translate into an actual policy shift down the road is completely unknown; but for now, the rhetoric is clearly tailored to make Vance look like the adult setting firm boundaries. He has spent his media tour telling anyone who will listen that the old Washington talking point about America and Israel sharing identical goals is “just not true,” arguing that U.S. leaders should protect American interests first rather than prioritizing a foreign ally.

Then there’s his sit-down with Ross Douthat on his New York Times podcast. Asked about Israel’s criticisms of the White House negotiations with Iran, Vance’s reply was blunt: “You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”

And then there’s Vance’s remark mentioned earlier that “if everything is Jew-hatred then nothing is Jew-hatred.” What stands out here is his decision not to use the term “antisemitism,” which seems like an attempt to define the issues on his own terms without the usual connotations.

6. Iran

Tip-toeing around Donald Trump’s war venture that has so rankled MAGA and other conservatives, Vance is relying on toughness on Israel to position himself as a practical realist, again subtly acknowledging the president’s mistakes.

For example, he said on several podcasts that fracturing the Iranian regime into a “Persian Libya” — a totally collapsed failed state of 90 million people — is a complete non-starter for American security.

This is a preview of Vance’s counterattack when he’s inevitably hammered on why he didn’t warn Trump that the Iran would result in the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

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2028 is clearly on Vance’s mind. And however seriously you take this pivot, it’s something Kamala Harris wasn’t willing or able to do in 2024. When asked during her campaign for president where she might differ from Biden, her response was “nothing really comes to mind.”

Marco Rubio, who is Vance’s clear competitor for the Republican ticket, hasn’t been willing to distance himself from Trump. Part of the reason is that Trump can fire him. Unlike the Secretary of State though, the Vice President holds a unique, constitutionally insulated advantage that completely alters the calculus for the next Republican primary nomination. Because he is an elected official rather than an appointed bureaucrat, Vance is completely immune to the standard executive purge.

As Vance himself pointed out multiple times during his media blitz: “I’m the only person in the cabinet who can’t be fired.”

Democrats should pay attention to Vance's America First moderation, because whether or not he means a word of it, it’s a pitch to the center, portraying him as the “reasonable” alternative to the end-of-the-worldism they associate with Trump. If Vance continues along this path, two years from now, his pivot will be compelling to people.

— Edited by William M. Arkin