WASHINGTON — James David Vance took an astonishing step in his meteoric political rise Monday when he was sworn in as the youngest vice president of the United States in more than 70 years.
Just 40 years old, Vance assumed his first public office only two years ago as a senator from Ohio. While a four-year term as vice president has tended to punctuate the long political careers of his predecessors, it will instead mostly define Vance’s.
Vance appears to have a wide berth to shape his role in the new administration. He was front-and-center during the election, driving the campaign’s messages on immigration and leading attacks on Democratic opponents. But since then, he has taken a more behind-the-scenes role in helping President Trump prepare for office.
During the inauguration inside the Capitol, Vance was seated at Trump’s right hand. His ability to remain affixed to Trump, whose closest relationships are often his most fraught, will determine his influence inside the administration and his standing within the Republican Party.
So far, Vance has maintained Trump’s confidence.
After Vance took the oath of office using a family Bible, Trump offered him a hearty handshake before taking a step closer to him to offer a word of encouragement and two solid slaps on the back. Vance smiled and nodded in return, and the president patted him again on the shoulder.
Later, Trump praised Vance’s performance on the campaign trail and credited the vice president, along with the first lady, Melania Trump, for helping convince him to focus more on national unity rather than some of the political grievances he had wanted to include in his inaugural address.
“He was a great senator and very, very smart,” Donald Trump said, adding that Vance was “upwardly mobile” in his political career.
Raised by his grandmother in a working-class town in Ohio as his mother struggled with drug addiction, Vance is now first in the line of succession to the oldest president ever sworn in to the office.
Vance’s stunning transformation from a biting critic of Trump eight years ago into one of his fiercest defenders is now complete as he becomes among the least experienced and among the most polarizing politicians to ever hold the vice presidency.
Vance has sought to display his loyalty to Trump by volunteering for tasks few others appeared as eager to take on.
After the election, for example, he shepherded through Congress two of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks: former representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who ultimately withdrew from consideration as attorney general, and Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News anchor who was picked to run the Defense Department.
When Trump tired of criticism aimed at Hegseth and considered replacing him with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Vance rallied Republican senators and other figures inside the president’s conservative moment, channeling the kind of advice he had often received from Trump during the 2024 election to fight through attacks and criticism.
He also has been in a position to benefit some valued associates.
Vance’s friend and former classmate, Daniel Driscoll, was Trump’s pick for secretary of the Army.
Vance also played a key role in Trump’s choosing of Gail Slater for the top antitrust post at the Justice Department. If confirmed, she would inherit a lawsuit to break up Google’s search monopoly and another accusing Apple of making it hard for consumers to switch software and hardware. She has previously worked as a policy adviser to Vance and as a tech policy adviser to the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term.
Last month, Vance, a leading skeptic of US aid for Ukraine, met with a delegation of senior Ukrainian officials in Washington. The meeting also included Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, and retired General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s pick to serve as special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
Vance has also negotiated with House Speaker Mike Johnson over the massive budget and tax bill that has divided Congress.
In an interview on his campaign plane on Nov. 2, Vance anticipated that he would probably play a central role in pushing Trump’s policy agenda in Congress. He said he would like to be an influential voice on immigration, manufacturing, and tech policy.
“I really just see my job as an extra set of hands for the president,” Vance said.
Vance is four months younger than Richard Nixon was when he assumed the vice presidency in 1953 under Dwight Eisenhower. The only vice president younger than Vance and Nixon at swearing in was John Breckinridge, who was 36 when he became James Buchanan’s vice president in 1857.
Nixon served six years in the House and two in the Senate before Eisenhower selected him as his running mate. Starting with that election in 1952, Nixon’s name was on the Republican Party’s presidential ticket in five of six national elections.
Vance’s path in Republican politics is just beginning.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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