J.D. Vance just might become the most powerful vice president since Dick Cheney.
That’s according to a report by The Telegraph that cited Republican insiders, who added that the 40-year-old Vance—who’s overwhelmingly viewed as the GOP favorite to succeed Donald Trump in 2028—will serve as a “de facto prime minister” these next four years.
Unlike most vice presidents, who are often more of a figurehead than they are policy kingpins, the insiders who spoke to the British paper said Trump, 78, will call on his millennial running mate to be his “chief policy enforcer.”
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Vance is also reportedly being called on to “consolidate” Trump’s base as his apparent “heir presumptive.”
What exactly this means for Vance’s position under the attention-loving Trump is still up in the air. The dad-of-three has made clear his stance on key issues, however, like being staunchly opposed to abortion aside from exceptions for rape and incest. He’s also promised deportations by the millions, has shared he’s against codifying same-sex marriage, and said previously he’d like to ban pornography.
“I think the combination of porn, abortion have basically created a really lonely, isolated generation that isn’t getting married,” he told Crisis Magazine, a Catholic publication, in 2021. “They’re not having families, and they’re actually not even totally sure how to interact with each other.”
Dennis Lennox, a veteran Republican strategist, was among the experts who likened Vance’s pending power to that of Cheney, who has long been viewed as the country’s most powerful VP as he served under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009.
“It’s hard to see a situation in which Vance does not exercise immense, if not virtually unprecedented, influence and delegated authority because Trump picked him to be his MAGA heir,” Lennox told the Telegraph.
Perhaps we shouldn’t need a GOP expert to tell us that Vance will be an unusually powerful vice president. The Ohio politician has already said as such himself.
“I know the president wants me to be involved in everything,” he told USA Today in September. “My job is to help make him as successful as I can.”
Trump has echoed that comment from Vance and has praised him for doing what Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz often refused to do—doing media hits of all types, both hostile and friendly, with traditional media outlets as well as YouTubers, podcasters, and influencers. Most recently, Trump praised Vance for his media willingness during the president-elect’s victory speech on Wednesday.
“He is a feisty guy, isn’t he?,” Trump said. “He and I have said, go into the enemy camp, and, you know, the enemy camp is certain networks and a lot of people don’t like [them]...The only guy I’ve ever seen who looks forward to it and then he just goes in and absolutely obliterates them.”
While Vance is sure to a chief Trump promoter in media hits, he’ll also bring his experience—and relationships—from his days in the U.S. Senate. Trump, of course, never held a position in Washington prior to his first White House term and his old VP, Mike Pence, had served in the House but had more recently been Indiana’s governor.
A source close to one of Vance’s Senate colleagues told the Telegraph he’s sure to be Trump’s go-to for matters on Capitol Hill because lawmakers will be “more amenable to working with him than other members of the executive.”
That same source reportedly called Vance a “creature of the Senate,” suggesting he was incredibly active in working his relationships on the hill despite only being a Congressman since January 2023.
Jon Lieber, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group, told the Telegraph he believes Vance is “unbelievably well positioned” to carry the MAGA movement into 2028 and beyond. He called him a populist who is “not as shameless as Trump” and is “more polished.”
“Vance’s temperament, his approach to the media, his policy orientation are all the direction of travel for the Republican Party,” he said. “That means anti-trade, anti-immigrant, anti-big business, which is a new feature in American politics.”
Vance has indicated a number of times he’s willing to test the bounds of the U.S. constitution to implement conservative policies.
“We are in a late republican period,” Vance said in 2021, referencing the Democratic wins that came immediately after Trump’s chaotic first term. “If we’re going to push back against it, we have to get pretty wild, pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.”
