JD Vance is Promoting White Nationalism, And it’s Working

Vice President JD Vance has so far failed to meaningfully condemn the ascending white nationalism on his own end of the political spectrum. In a December interview with Unheard, Vance appeared to attack the online white nationalist figure Nick Fuentes, but when examined closely—especially in the context of his other actions—the statement is not meaningful. “Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat shit,” Vance said. This seems fiery and definitive, but context is crucial.

Current MSNBC host Psaki made remarks in October suggesting that Second Lady of the United States Usha Vance might need to be rescued from her husband.“Please blink four times,” Psaki joked. Fuentes, on the other hand, an extremist figure popular on conservative internet forums, has launched multiple derogatory attacks aimed at Usha Vance, including but not limited to referring to her as a “jeet,” and to JD Vance as a “race traitor.” These are totally different types of comments, and by referencing them in the same breath, Vance has failed to distinguish white supremacy from banter.

Vance is the expected Republican front-runner in the 2028 presidential election, but finds himself at a crossroads. The far right movement is grappling with camps that believe in the importance of the “heritage American,” which for them means white Americans descended from colonial settlers. Proponents of the idea of a “heritage American” believe that an individual’s stake in America, along with the validity of their citizenship, is tied to their ethnic lineage, and that America must heavily restrict immigration—among other things—to fulfill its destiny as a nation. Those who claim such a thing as a “heritage American” exists have been rightfully denounced as white nationalists by people all across the political spectrum. 

Vance’s statement about Fuentes and Psaki is a classic example of downplaying the minority experience by falsely equating it with something much different. It’s disrespectful to compare the use of a racial slur to a dig about the strength of someone’s romantic relationship. This is a tool that is used purposely and strategically by Vance; his refusal to condemn racism for exactly what it is is not an accident—it makes his demagoguery more practical by allowing for him to resonate with a wider and more explicitly racist audience. 

You need not look further than a speech Vance gave this summer in which he made clear his vision of America. Vance criticized the idea of America being a “creedal nation,” meaning a country not defined by an ethnicity, but by a set of common ideals. Vance warned his audience of where that approach would lead the United States. “It would include hundreds of millions, maybe billions of foreign citizens who agree with the principles of the Declaration of Independence,” Vance explained. “Must we admit them all tomorrow?” This is a horrifyingly slippery slope. If we aren’t a creedal nation, are we an ethnic state? 

Most recently, Vance had a perfect opportunity to condemn the bigotry of the far right when he spoke at a Turning Point USA convention in December. But again, his keynote speech plunged into harmful rhetoric—rhetoric made possible by his maneuver to not fully distance himself from people like Fuentes. Five minutes in, Vance stated that President Donald Trump “did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless self-defeating purity tests,” implying that there doesn’t exist a clear moral standard for MAGA. The movement is proven to exclude those who hold progressive beliefs, so I take Vance’s welcoming message to be aimed at the ideological fringes of the far right. 

During a time when explicit racists like Fuentes are gaining large followings, Vance is not worried about holding people accountable but rather is determined to be lenient. He declared in his speech that MAGA doesn’t “care if you’re controversial,” and that MAGA “can’t cancel people,” but instead “has to build,” receiving loud applause from a crowd on its feet. The message is loud and clear: Vance will not cancel Hitler-sympathizers like Nick Fuentes if it’s not politically convenient for him to do so. 

Vance’s speech only grew more hateful towards the latter half. He referred to Omar Fateh as a senate candidate for Mogadishu instead of Minneapolis, jokingly claiming it was a Freudian slip. He then bashed what he called United States Representative Jasmine Crockett’s “street girl persona” as the crowd laughed and roared. 

Certain prominent members of the Republican Party, like Vivek Ramaswamy, a current candidate for governor of Ohio, have taken a bold stand against this idea of a “heritage American” and have instead been emphasizing notions of American exceptionalism. Ramaswamy published a definitive op-ed in the New York Times that attacked those who are defining a blood and soil, white-centric Americanism. 

Vance’s hate tirade at Turning Point USA was contrasted with Ramaswamy, who also spoke at the event. Ramaswamy ventured to protest against white nationalism, but his sentiment did not receive the emphatic welcome that Vance’s did. A smattering of cheers echoed throughout the venue, and Ramaswamy appeared to try to handle the awkwardness by saying, “Yeah, I’ll take some applause for that.” This is both upsetting and very telling of our current moment; Ramaswamy leads with cliches of American exceptionalism in place of white supremacy, but it doesn’t land. It’s a strange situation—are Vance and Ramaswamy still pretending to be friends, even though they articulated seemingly contradictory visions of America on the same stage?

The future of the Republican Party is definitely a question mark, but Vance has a lot of control over the direction they choose to go in: he is massively favored to be the presidential nominee in 2028. This is worrisome, because I don’t buy his shot at Fuentes, nor the opinion of anyone who insists on a clear differentiation between the two. I think JD Vance is very much a white nationalist. Proven by the crowd’s reaction at Turning Point USA, leaning into those beliefs is a decent strategy for building and maintaining his fan base right now.