'Billionaire-first agenda': JD Vance under fire for taking 8 luxury family vacations in 7 months
WASHINGTON, DC: It’s usually the same old gripe from Washington’s second-in-commands. They can’t escape the swamp.
But Vice President JD Vance's problem is the exact opposite. He seemingly can’t seem to stay in the nation’s capital.
After six months in office, it’s newsworthy if he even manages to sit still in Washington, DC, for more than a week. The veep has already racked up stamps from France, Germany, India, Greenland, the United Kingdom, and two separate Vatican visits for two different popes.
Inside the US, he’s crisscrossed more than a dozen states to tout the Trump-Vance agenda, pump up small businesses, and console disaster-hit communities. As the Republican National Committee finance chair, the fundraising circuit keeps him hobnobbing in some of America’s most exclusive zip codes.
Democrats think JD Vance's loyalties don't lie with working Americans
The jet-setting hasn’t gone unnoticed. Democrats are blasting Vance for living more like a globe-trotting tourist than a Washington workhorse.
“JD Vance has gone on vacation at least once a month since he took office,” the Democratic National Committee War Room fumed in a statement.
“It’s clear Vance’s loyalties lie with the ultra-wealthy he’s been vacationing with — not with working Americans who are struggling under the Trump-Vance billionaire-first agenda,” added DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer.
World affairs or world tour?
The timing hasn’t helped JD Vance’s case. His passport has gotten more use than most Americans’ luggage.
Within just three weeks, he flew to Italy twice. First to meet Pope Francis (who died the very next day), then to congratulate the newly elected Pope Leo XIV.
Between Vatican stops, he squeezed in sit-downs with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Britain’s new Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Furthermore, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, those meetings with European leaders weren’t just photo ops but headline necessities.
Even his so-called “vacations” blur the line between work and play. The Vance family’s August getaway in the UK’s scenic Cotswolds doubled as a diplomatic trip, prompting the RNC to clap back at the critics.
“The Democrats are shamelessly lying about Vice President Vance and the Trump administration’s highly successful record on the world stage,” RNC spokeswoman Kiersten Pels snapped to the Daily Mail.
Regardless, the pile-on continued. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes blasted Vance for taking “eight vacations in seven months,” accusing him of “rank corruption” and “abusing the public trust.”
Allies defend the family man veep
But JD Vance’s allies aren’t letting him twist in the wind. Conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk jumped to his defense.
“This is a contrived story from a Democrat Party that is searching for ways to attack a massively effective VP who has a young family that sometimes travels together, which is commendable. JD is a real person with a real life. The people attacking him need to get one of their own,” Kirk told the Daily Mail.
Vance, after all, is the first VP since Al Gore to regularly travel with children in tow.
Back in February, he hit Paris and Munich for an AI summit and the Munich Security Conference, delivering two high-profile speeches and huddling with French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s Zelensky, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
But his team made sure family time wasn’t left off the itinerary. Between summits, the Vances toured Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and made a sobering visit to the Dachau concentration camp memorial in Germany. In India, the family strolled the Taj Mahal as Modi rolled out the red carpet, celebrating Usha Vance and the children’s Indian heritage.
To his defenders, this is exactly what makes Vance stand out.
“It’s insane that the Democrat Party is attacking Vice President Vance for making time for his wife and kids. He’s the most effective Vice President in modern history, and he’s an attentive dad, and he deserves credit for both,” said Terry Schilling, president of the pro-family American Principles Project.
