{"id":5920,"date":"2025-02-08T15:09:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T15:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/how-jd-vance-is-helping-trump-win-on-capitol-hill\/"},"modified":"2025-02-08T15:09:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-08T15:09:30","slug":"how-jd-vance-is-helping-trump-win-on-capitol-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/how-jd-vance-is-helping-trump-win-on-capitol-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"How JD Vance Is Helping Trump Win on Capitol Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Todd Young needed to vent, and a former colleague was ready to listen.<\/p>\n

One of the key swing votes on President Donald Trump\u2019s troubled nomination for director of national intelligence, the Indiana Republican had told Republican leaders he was leaning no on confirming Tulsi Gabbard. And then Trump\u2019s most powerful ally, Elon Musk, went online Sunday to call him a \u201cdeep state puppet\u201d \u2014 unleashing a tide of MAGA fury.<\/p>\n

He found a sympathetic ear in Vice President JD Vance, who spoke with Young shortly after Musk\u2019s posting, according to two people familiar with the conversation.<\/p>\n

Vance quickly made it clear to his team, legislative affairs staffers and others in the White House: Time to call off the dogs.<\/p>\n

Those aides proceeded to contact a range of GOP influencers who had been pummeling Young \u2014 Turning Point USA captain Charlie Kirk, MAGA activist Jack Posobiec and close Gabbard friend Meghan McCain. Even Musk got a call with a request to make nice with Young. The billionaire listened, speaking to Young<\/a> for 15 minutes on the phone then publicly walking back his criticism.<\/p>\n

Two days later, Young announced he would vote to confirm Gabbard \u2014 and thanked Vance for helping him get with the decision.<\/p>\n

It was only one of several instances where Vance has played a behind-the-scenes role in cajoling a former colleague and delivering a big win for Trump on Capitol Hill \u2014 vindicating the president\u2019s decision, I\u2019m told, to explicitly task Vance with getting his Cabinet confirmed.<\/p>\n

With Pete Hegseth\u2019s nomination as Defense secretary on the ropes in the 11th hour, Vance helped assuage Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. And earlier this week, he not only won over Young on Gabbard but helped Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana get behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary. Both are on track for confirmation next week.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.<\/p>\n

Vance, in other words, has aced his first test as Trump\u2019s Hill whisperer. But more difficult tasks lie ahead. Trump is looking to Vance to muscle his agenda through \u2014 not only in the Senate, where he enjoys good relationships with his ex-colleagues, but in the rowdier, more fractious House.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a risky job. Consider what awaits in the next months: Republicans will have to strike a bipartisan deal with Democrats to extend government spending, raise the debt ceiling and deliver disaster aid to deep-blue California \u2014 something the GOP base, mark my words, will abhor.<\/p>\n

It’s especially risky for someone with presidential ambitions of his own \u2014 and just four years from his grasp. Vance is already atop the hierarchy of post-Trump Republican standard bearers, but as he gets his hands dirty with Congress, he\u2019ll have to be careful to avoid soiling himself with the toxic politics of Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n

But so far, he\u2019s made a distinctly positive impression with fellow Republicans by being ready, willing and eager to take care of whatever Trump needs. He jumped in to help smooth over Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s pre-Christmas spending fiasco. He\u2019s reached out to key House lawmakers in the House as the chamber tries to pass a budget. And it doesn\u2019t hurt that lawmakers see Vance as one of their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members trust him, which is really important,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has personal relationships with all the senators, and I think that goes a very long way to building credibility,\u201d Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told me this week. Added Sen. Kevin Cramer: \u201cIt\u2019s just nice having somebody that can speak specifically for Donald Trump to us who also is one of us \u2014 that\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

That praise reflects a dramatic transformation for someone who was considered naive and arrogant when he arrived in the Senate just over two years ago. Elected as a MAGA populist, he joined a Republican Conference that was led by Sen. Mitch McConnell and still dominated by the Kentuckian\u2019s brand of traditional Reaganite conservatism.<\/p>\n

In a chamber where seniority means everything, some veteran Republicans chafed at his habit of telling them matter-of-factly they were wrong in closed-door meetings. (\u201cHe thinks he knows everything,\u201d one senior GOP aide complained of Vance to me last year.)<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just in private. Amid a tense intraparty debate over Ukraine aid \u2014 something Vance vehemently opposed but which McConnell and most other GOP senators firmly supported \u2014 he got into an online spat with Cramer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Later, in a meeting of senators, Cramer gave it right back. When Vance suggested some of his colleagues didn\u2019t want to take tough votes, Cramer stood up for his insulted colleagues and lectured Vance: \u201cYou might think about what you\u2019re saying,\u201d he said, arguing that his colleagues had taken plenty of tough votes in their lives.<\/p>\n

Still, Vance\u2019s willingness to mix it up quickly made him a force inside the Senate GOP \u2014 and an effective counterbalance to McConnell\u2019s wing of the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe called out some of the leadership about Ukraine, and asked, \u2018What are we doing? It doesn\u2019t look like they can win. Aren\u2019t we supposed to be on the winning side?\u2019\u201d Sen. Tommy Tuberville recounted to me. \u201cYou could tell he was very informed and did a lot of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowadays, his former colleagues are using a different tone in talking about Vance \u2014 and it\u2019s not just because of his new, more exalted title. He\u2019s now viewed as an essential go-between with Trump \u2014 someone who speaks the language of Capitol Hill, who understands the pressures members are balancing and can get into the minutiae of congressional business in a way Trump just won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\"Vance\u2019s<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you\u2019re there two years or 12 years, there is connective tissue \u2014 like, I sat in your chair,\u201d said one senior Republican aide. \u201cHe has earned the right to be heard and this place respects him,\u201d added Cramer, who gushed over Vance for a full 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also now a sense that while Vance might not always be on the same page ideologically as some Republicans, he is interested in listening and trying to understand other points of view inside the GOP umbrella as he tries to ensure success for Trump and Republicans.<\/p>\n

Some now view him like the formerly pesky son who is now all grown up and running the family business. Instead of chasing cable TV hits and letting loose in conference lunches, he\u2019s now nurturing unlikely relationships. He had dinner, for instance, with GOP Sen. Susan Collins just days before the Maine moderate decided to back Gabbard. He later talked through her concerns over Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs on Canada.<\/p>\n

With Cassidy struggling with Kennedy\u2019s vaccine-skeptical views, Vance worked over a period of weeks to listen to the Louisianan \u2014 someone who had become persona non grata in Republican circles after voting to convict Trump on impeachment charges in 2021. As the Senate voted on Jan. 6 to certify Trump\u2019s elections \u2014 four years after the riot sparking the impeachment \u2014 Vance sat with him making small talk about sports and politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found him to be an honest broker,\u201d Cassidy said after announcing his Kennedy vote this week. \u201cHe was above board and saw my point.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in question is whether Vance can be anywhere near as effective across the aisle. While he made his MAGA reputation with brazen social media posts and prime-time \u201cHannity\u201d hits, he also carved out a bipartisan Senate reputation in certain policy areas.<\/p>\n

He partnered with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to curb bonuses for executives of failed banks during the regional bank crisis in 2023. He tag-teamed with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on bills to ensure taxpayer-funded inventions are made in the U.S. and to force online stores to list products\u2019 country of origin. And he worked politely with fellow Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown on the East Palestine rail disaster before campaigning successfully to unseat him last year.<\/p>\n

Whether those connections will help ease the way for bipartisan deals with Democrats is another question. As the face of the new populist right \u2014 someone who on Friday, for instance, called for the reinstatement<\/a> of a Trump administration employee who had been fired for racist online postings \u2014 he might be too polarizing to rebuild those bridges.<\/p>\n

Warren, who once called Vance \u201cterrific,\u201d<\/a> wouldn\u2019t go there when I prodded her this week on whether Vance could help land bipartisan deals on Blue Light News: \u201cI just don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is fine for the moment, as far as Republicans are concerned. They\u2019re more worried about keeping their own party together as they try to grind through Trump\u2019s nominees and pass his ultra-ambitious tax, energy and border security agenda. That will require wrangling a famously restless group of hard-line conservatives in the House.<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s fans in the White House and Capitol Hill believe he is well positioned to do just that, given his old reputation as a troublemaker who was ready and willing to shake up a hidebound Senate GOP.<\/p>\n

During his two years in the chamber, he ran with a posse of hard-right senators \u2014 members like Utah\u2019s Mike Lee and Florida\u2019s Rick Scott \u2014 who voted against spending bills and debt ceiling increases. He voted, in other words, a lot like the problem-child House Republicans that Trump now needs to wrangle, and that gives him a unique and useful connection.<\/p>\n

It also helps that Trump genuinely likes being around Vance and trusts his political judgment. That has given him real influence \u2014 and given GOP lawmakers hope that his back-channeling can go both ways as they look for a real give-and-take with the White House. A former top Senate aide, James Braid, is now working side-by-side with Vance as Trump\u2019s top Hill liaison.<\/p>\n

Among those with praise \u2014 and high hopes \u2014 is Texas Rep. Chip Roy, an unofficial ringleader of House troublemakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has strong core conservative convictions combined with a real personal understanding of the populist underpinnings of the current landscape,\u201d Roy said. \u201cAnd that is a powerful political position to have, especially when you combine it with a good understanding of the people and the relationships in the House and the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Todd Young needed to vent, and a former colleague was ready to listen. One of the key swing votes on President Donald Trump\u2019s troubled nomination for director of national intelligence, the Indiana Republican had told Republican leaders he was leaning no on confirming Tulsi Gabbard. And then Trump\u2019s most powerful ally, Elon Musk, went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}