Politics
A vote for Trump is a vote for a potential Vance presidency
This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 5 episode of “The Katie Phang Show.”
In some ways, vice presidents are like understudies; you may never need them to step into the breach but they’re there just in case something goes wrong.
And as we inch closer to November’s election, I want you to consider this: If elected, Donald Trump — who is currently 78 years old, regularly frequents McDonald’sand loves his Diet Cokes — would end his second term as the oldest personeverto serve as president of the United States. On the final day of his presidency in January 2029, Trump would be 82 years, seven months and six days old.
Trump’s meandering speeches have led some mental health experts to go on the record, raising concerns about his potential cognitive decline.
The former president’s rambling, meandering speeches on the campaign trail have led some mental health experts to go on the record, raising concerns about his potential cognitive decline. Despite these concerns, Trump refuses to release even the most basic information about his health.
So what happens if Trump wins in November and then, days, weeks, months or years into his presidency, dies or becomes incapacitated and can no longer serve? Well, according to Section 1 of the 25th Amendment, in that event, the vice president would become the president automatically.
To state it plainly: Sen. JD Vance is a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. The same Vance who, right now, has poll numbers labeling him the least popular vice-presidential candidate of the 21st century — unsurprising given his many extremist views on everything from child care to the truth of who won the 2020 election. I mean, not admitting your running mate lost the last election is a huge red flag that you have an issue with the truth.
During last week’s vice-presidential debate, Vance got caught in another lie. The senator claimed he never supported a national abortion ban. However, in 2022 while he was running for the Senate, Vance said on a podcast he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.”
Then there’s his extremist stances. Also during that 2022 run for the Senate, Vance delivered a 30-minute speech titled “The Universities are the Enemy” at the National Conservatism Conference.
It seems Yale-educated Vance wants to overhaul the education system in his image.
“I think if any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country and for the people who live in it, we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country,” the then-candidate told the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, the universities do not pursue knowledge and truth, they pursue deceit and lies, and it’s time to be honest about that fact.”
Now, in my opinion, the best way to pursue a good and fulfilling life is through education, but it seems Yale-educated Vance wants to overhaul the education system in his image. Under Project 2025, a Trump-Vance administration could eliminate the Department of Education, privatize K-12and dismantle the current collegiate system.
He’s a threat to everything Americans hold dear: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And if something were to happen to Trump, the big job would go to Vance: the guy who refuses to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election, promotes anti-immigrant hate rhetoricand supports a national abortion ban.
And let’s be clear, 40-year-old Vance is fully aware that Trump is 78 years old. You’re kidding yourself if you think he didn’t consider Trump’s physical and mental health issues when contemplating his career advancement and upward mobility prospects as the Republican VP nominee.
So, before you cast your ballot in this year’s election, you should remember this: Any vote for Donald Trump is a vote for a potential automatic JD Vance presidency. Vote accordingly.
Katie S. Phang is the host of “The Katie Phang Show,” which airs Saturdays at 12 p.m. ET on BLN. She is a legal contributor for NBC News and BLN based in Miami. She leverages her significant trial attorney experience to provide analysis and commentary on the latest legal issues.
Allison Detzel
contributed
.
Around a hundred Samurai Blue superfans crowded the Old Ambassador’s Residence at the Japanese embassy in Washington, on Sunday for a watch party marking its World Cup opener against the Netherlands.
The supporters — a motley group including erstwhile English teachers in Japan, state department workers and embassy staffers — lounged around a projector set in the building’s front room, plates piled high with nigiri. Drinking Kirin Ichiban lager and Asahi Super Dry, they winced when the Dutch team had the ball in the opposing third and burst into cheers and sang “Vamos Nippon” when Daichi Kamada’s header tied the game in the 89th minute.
“The World Cup itself is a competition,” said Masatsugu Odaira, the embassy’s minister of public affairs, at the watch party. “But from the perspective of policy and diplomacy, it’s a very good chance to connect people across borders.”
At the event, Blue Light News spoke to soccer fans who are already excited about Japan’s growing diplomatic footprint and soft power projection. And they hope the World Cup will buoy that cultural momentum, stimulating tourism — one of the nation’s most lucrative sectors — and drawing eyes to Japan.
The World Cup is “just a visceral way to connect people who have not yet had the opportunity to travel to Japan to be swept up in the enthusiasm of an international competition,” said Andrew Wylegala, president of the National Association of Japan-America Societies.
Japan is already “at the top of its game” in terms of soft power projection, Wylegala added — and “soccer now fits in with that.”
Embassy staff wore pink shirts with the American and Japanese flags on the back. “Together We Bloom,” they read.
The end result, a 2-2 draw against the Dutch, the world’s eighth ranked international side, only added to their enthusiasm.
The women’s team has a far more prolific record. Fans still hark back to their 2011 World Cup final victory over the U.S., months after a massive earthquake and tsunami slammed the country.
But the men’s team has won just seven World Cup games in its history. Japan’s best-ever finish: The round of 16, where they’ve fallen four separate times.
But there’s hope that, this year, the underdogs could pull off an upset. From Ajax’s Takehiro Tomiyasu to Kamada, a Crystal Palace midfielder, the Samurai Blue have more than enough talent to compete with the sport’s upper crust.
Odaira’s hope for this year? “Oh, becoming a champion,” he said.
No European country has infuriated Donald Trump more than Spain. Now it’s desperate to win his World Cup.
Teenage superstar Lamine Yamal, Rodri and co. enter the tournament as joint favorites alongside France. With the U.S. president apparently intent on making this a World Cup that projects his personal influence and America’s soft power, victory would be sweet for Spanish soccer fans — but especially so for their prime minister.
Outspoken socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, a supporter of Atlético Madrid, has clashed spectacularly with Trump over the Iran war, but also regarding NATO spending and Israel’s assault in Gaza. Meanwhile their policies on issues from energy to immigration could hardly be further apart.
Read the full story about the failing Washington-Madrid relationship here.
LOS ANGELES — In many World Cup host cities, competing teams also find themselves jostling for soft-power supremacy around their matches. But before its first match tomorrow in Los Angeles, New Zealand has had the diplomatic landscape all to itself.
New Zealand is scheduled to face Iran, which has not had formal diplomatic relations with the United States since 1980. Even as President Donald Trump claims an end to the countries’ monthslong war is at hand, Iran will be competing in the World Cup under severe travel restrictions. The team has been forced from its original Tucson training camp to Tijuana, and is being forced to effectively commute to its matches in the U.S. without a full government delegation.
That has left New Zealand alone in pressing its off-field agenda in Los Angeles. On Sunday evening, New Zealand consul-general Katja Ackerley opened her Brentwood mansion to a “New Zealand on the World Stage” networking reception sponsored by the government agencies overseeing the country’s trade, sport and foreign-investment portfolios.
“It’s all about soft power, it’s all about person-to-person,” said Peter Miskimmin, the government’s head of sports diplomacy. “We are building relations through sport rather than bringing up arms against one another.”
The country’s Los Angeles diplomatic outpost typically focuses on promoting exports of wine and lamb, expediting visas for Hollywood personnel traveling for location shoots and addressing the perpetual crisis of “Kiwis losing their passports in Las Vegas,” as one previous inhabitant of the office put it.
A delegation of New Zealand officials was preparing for their first World Cup appearance since 2010 uncertain whether any of their opposite numbers from Iran would attend, and how that might affect the standard match-day pageantry.
“This is our first World Cup in 16 years so we can’t tell what’s different,” said James Wear, a general manager of the New Zealand Football Association. “We don’t have anything to compare.”
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