Vance Shines at Trump’s Expense

 In Washington DC, there is apparently a growing sense that Donald Trump is already a lame-duck president. Now, DC hardly reflects the country and Trump is unlikely to pay for his indefensible outburst after Rob Reiner’s death. But the portent isn’t good. Republicans are showing signs of standing up to a president many in the GOP have begun to see as a liability, for their mid-term prospects to 2028. They have revolted, from redistricting plans to the release of the Epstein files and cornering Trump loyalist House Speaker Mike Johnson on health­care. And then, Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles ended up talking about his “alcoholic personality” only to attack Vanity Fair for turn­ing her words into a hit job.

Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance delivered perhaps the Trump administration’s most coherent speech on its handling of the economy in Pennsylvania, arguing how Americans have to endure hardship only till the bene­fits of Trump’s policies kick in next year, how tariffs are already brining invest­ment inward, while the affordability crisis, which he acknowledged unlike Trump, is Joe Biden’s legacy. Vance, as Newsweek reveals, has deliberately avoided portfolios to not repeat Kamala Harris’ mistake and to prepare himself for inheriting the MAGA movement. That might explain his refusal to criticise MAGA loudmouth Nick Fuentes for his racist and anti-Semitic diatribes. Vance was only dealing in half-truths on the economy, but his disciplined speech holds a lesson for his boss.