JD Vance has close ties to the Heritage Foundation, the organization that created the Project 2025 report, and shares many of their views. The founder of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts told reporters that “privately, we were really rooting for” Vance to become Vice President, and praised him as “a man who personifies hope for our nation’s future.”
Although Trump is posting false claims on TruthSocial in an attempt to distance himself from Project 2025, there is a reason he chose Vance over non-Heritage-endorsed politicians like Marco Rubio or Nikki Haley.
Who is JD Vance, in his own words?
Someone who thinks the executive branch should break the law and defy the Supreme Court:
"I think that what Trump should do [is]… fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state. Replace them with our people. And when the courts… stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did, and say 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'"
— Vance to ABC, 2/4/24
And it's not about something good. Andrew Jackson reference, Vox explains, is "…Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears."
Vance thinks that Trump should be able to steal the election, by demanding "alternative electors" after our votes have been cast:
“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there. That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020.
— Vance to ABC 2/4/24
He believes we should abandon Ukraine in their fight against the brutal Russian invasion:
“Maybe the thing that I’m most proud of is that we are on the cusp of radically changing U.S. policy towards Ukraine…I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another…"
— Vance to Steve Bannon in an interview in early 2022
He believes the conservatives who violently invaded the Capitol building on January 6 did nothing wrong…
“These people are political prisoners, and their captivity is an assault on democracy.” — Vance on X, January 2022
He thinks it's ok to spread misinformation if it supports his party (fact check: the Jan 6 invaders were jailed on charges):
“There are dozens of people who protested on J6 who haven’t even been charged with a crime yet are being mistreated in DC prisons. A friend suggested the below link if you’re able to support them.”
— Vance wrote
He is happy to spread racist lies about election integrity (and refusing to take the opportunity to deny that he is racist):
“Are you a racist? Do you hate Mexicans? The media calls us racists for wanting to build Trump’s wall . . . Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.” — April 2022 campaign ad written by Vance
He doesn't believe all children deserve an equal footing and is willing to use a class war as a bludgeon to deprive lower income kids:
"Universal child care" is a massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class.
He is against the right to abortion even in the case of rape:
The Vance 2022 Senate campaign website stated that he is “100% pro-life.”
And when the Washington Post asked him about exceptions for rape and incest in 2021, Vance said “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
He believes the Federal Government, not your doctor, should be able to tell you what medications you can have, and how you receive them:
“We demand that you act swiftly and in accordance with the law, shut down all mail-order abortion operations," Vance and fellow GOP lawmakers urged DOJ.
— WaPo
He wants to render transgender people invisible by blocking this information from the US Census:
"…it is troubling that the Census Bureau is attempting to politicize the survey by including highly polarizing and patently false topics, like gender identity.
Biology determines gender, not subjective belief, and the bureau should not jeopardize the legitimacy of crucial statistical information by endorsing unscientific and untrue concepts like gender identity."
He wants to prevent trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care:
“Gender-affirming care,” even when limited to non-surgical interventions such as puberty blockers and hormone treatment, causes irreversible mental and physical damage, negatively impacting those who are treated for the rest of their lives.
American children are being targeted and indoctrinated with gender ideologies on social media platforms – children also face pressures from radical teachers, mental health counselors, and healthcare providers, often without receiving proper warning of associated risks.
He wants to force transgender and nonbinary people to have M or F passports:
“The last thing the State Department should be doing is wasting its time and your tax dollars pushing far-left gender ideology…"
He reaches for racist and islamophobic insults when faced with diverse societies:
“I was talking about, you know, what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon, and we were like, maybe it’s Iran, you know, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it’s actually the UK, since Labour just took over.”
— Vance at the National Conservatism Conference, July 10 2024
He believes Indigenous people do not deserve to be recognized with a federal holiday:
Indigenous Peoples Day is a fake holiday created to sow division
He has introduced legislation that would place indigenous native languages (including Spanish) below English, to make English the only official language of the United States:
Vance’s anti-Indigenous perspectives did not stop at social media. The first bill he introduced as a member of the Senate was the English Language Unity Act. This would establish English as the “official language” of the U.S.. This, despite the existence of Native languages spoken among more than 500 sovereign tribal nations.
He supports Donald Trump's policies and actions:
“What an honour it is to run alongside President Donald J Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he’ll do it again.”
Despite distancing comments, Vance is a supporter of The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025:
In Washington, [Vance] has been a major supporter of Kevin Roberts’s efforts to transform the Heritage Foundation from a bastion of Reagan-era conservatism into the de facto institutional home of Trumpism, and he is a frequent guest at events hosted by the Claremont Institute, a chief academic hub of the Trumpist right.
— Politico
“[Vance]'s at the nerve center of this movement,” said [Steve] Bannon, who frequently hosts Vance on his talk show, War Room, which remains influential in New Right circles.
— Politico
In short, Vance doesn't believe in the things that actually make America great:
His 2022 campaign was funded by one of his current business partners, and former employer, Peter Thiel, who has gone on record stating: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”
This is not a normal presidential race, and JD Vance is not a normal vice presidential candidate.
![A set of bar graphs depicting the effects of overtime on a worker's paycheck. At the top, a snippet from Project 2025 reads: "Attention: Republican Agenda. Specifically, employers...should be able to set a two or four week period over which to calculate overtime. This...would not require the employer to pay [employees] more for that same total number of hours of work during the entire period."
Underneath on the left is a set of green bars depicting Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4.
In Week One, there is a darker shaded section pointing out that the worker has worked more than 40 hours and is eligible for overtime.
Week 2 is a little less than 40 hours, and the last two weeks are normal (40 hours).
At the bottom of this set of bars, a summary reads: "You're paid overtime for EVERY week over time, regardless of other weeks."
On the right, a set of red bar graphs depicting Week 1 through 4. In Week 1, the employee has clearly worked more than 40 hours based on the long bar, but there is no overtime shading.
Week 2 is less than 40, and Week 3 and 4 are both 40.
At the bottom of this set of bars, a summary reads: "Your employer will AVERAGE weeks together...and you won't get paid."
A Republican win in November means: Same hours. No overtime.
Learn more at Project 2025 Truth dot com](http://images.ctfassets.net/ud0fpafebkep/dfWezS2sNCp0RckQO0Qto/ac92619956f0630189e675554b35d053/image-8.png)
