It could be a stump speech for almost any Democrat running this year: Voters in the November midterms should repudiate divisive politicians, elect leaders of good character and root out fraud.
But those are the arguments Vice President JD Vance is using to attack Democrats.
While campaigning for Republican candidates over the past few weeks, Vance has repeatedly leveled attacks on their opponents that sound almost eerily like a critique of his own boss.
This may be partly due to the audience. Vance’s other aim in these speeches, aside from boosting GOP voter enthusiasm, is to raise his profile ahead of an expected 2028 campaign of his own. His talking points are more for the MAGA faithful, who really believe that Democrats are doing all of this.
It may also be a way to inoculate Trump from those points of criticism. If everyone is arguing that their opponents are corrupt or crazy, then some low-information voters may simply tune out all sides.
Whatever his aims, the extent to which Vance’s attacks on Democrats echo criticism of Trump is remarkable.
Divisive politicians
At a rally for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers in Detroit on Monday, Vance argued that “there’s something about” Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed “that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today.”
“And it’s people who see themselves not as citizens of a common nation fighting for every single person — whether they’re Jewish or Christian, whether they’re white or Black or brown — but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others, and that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America,” he added.
As a reminder, Trump denied or delayed disaster aid to several Democratic-led states. According to former aides, he considered whether Californians hit by wildfires had voted for him before approving aid. The administration also acknowledged in a court filing that it canceled $7.6 billion in clean energy grants solely because the recipients were located in states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Vance himself has argued that America is “not just an idea” and that Americans whose ancestors fought in the Civil War have “a hell of a lot more claim over America than the people who say they don’t belong.”
Americans have noticed all of this: An August poll by YouGov found that 60% of U.S. citizens said the country had become more divided under Trump.
‘Good character’
In July, Vance ended a speech in Milwaukee by calling for Americans to “send people to Washington who are of good character.”
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments. A civil jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. And a New York court ordered him to pay $2 million and dissolved the Trump Foundation over misuse of charitable funds.
Again, Americans have noticed. In a Gallup poll in December, only 30% of U.S. adults said that Trump “is honest and trustworthy.”
‘Send the fraudsters to prison’
At the July speech in Milwaukee, Vance called Democrats “the pro-fraud party” that is “sending your tax money to the fraudsters,” while Republicans are “trying to save your money and send the fraudsters to prison.”
Trump’s own record includes being found civilly liable for fraud in New York over inflated financial statements. The Trump Organization — though not Trump personally — was convicted in 2022 of 17 felonies involving a long-running tax fraud scheme. In 2011, Trump and his co-defendants agreed to return millions of dollars in deposits after buyers in Trump SoHo said they were misled by inflated sales figures. And Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle fraud lawsuits brought by students of his Trump University real estate courses.
In his second term, Trump has pardoned Trevor Milton, the founder of an electric-truck company who misled investors about its technology; Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV stars who used false documents to obtain bank loans; Lawrence Duran, who orchestrated a $205 million scheme that billed Medicare for unnecessary or nonexistent mental health services; and former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on charges that included attempting to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat. The list of the more than 1,600 people that Trump has granted clemency in his second term is full of similar cases.
‘Crazy leadership’
In a May speech in Kansas City, Missouri, Vance urged supporters to “vote against the crazy leadership in Washington, D.C.” In June, he told Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham that “the only sane party left is the Republican Party.” And in June, he told another Fox host he doesn’t know why Democrats “can’t just find normal, well-adjusted candidates.”
Among other things, Trump posted artificial-intelligence-generated images and videos depicting himself as a king, as the pope and as a fighter pilot dumping excrement on protesters. He also posted an image that appeared to show him as a Christlike healer. He initially refused to rule out using military force to acquire Greenland, suggested Canada should become the 51st state, renamed Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico in government documents and signed an executive order promising to restore “shower freedom.”
In short, Vance’s call for “normal, well-adjusted candidates” is a particularly awkward message for a vice president serving one Donald J. Trump.
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