Lee Smith, who is, I believe, one of conservativism’s more informed and brilliant political analysts, has a very interesting take on JD Vance’s political trajectory: Vance is invested more in self-advancement than he is in political principles.

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What this means is that when Vance sustains an ego attack—in this case, with his failed Memorandum of Understanding—he will deflect blame on those whom he dislikes: In this case, Jews and, to a lesser extent, Trump, whom he may feel let him down.

Smith’s essay, “JD Vance’s Big Crashout,” focuses on Vance’s bizarre appearance on the Joe Rogan show. There, Vance articulated Tucker Carlson-esque anti-Israel conspiracy theories and managed to suggest that Trump might indeed have been embroiled in Jeffrey Epstein’s sordid world. With this springboard, Smith examines Vance’s rise and predicts that the seeds of his fall may already be planted.

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As a predicate to Vance’s appearance on Rogan, Smith notes that, because Trump is only a four-year president, any Republican who wants career advancement in the Trump administration isn’t going to be cozying up to Trump. Vance is the presumptive future leader of the party, and D.C. operatives will circle the wagons to protect him, including denying that the Rogan appearance was anything other than normal.

In fact, it was a bizarre event:

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Instead of advancing the administration’s agenda on Capitol Hill, the vice president went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to promote his new memoir. Like Barack Obama, Vance sees his personal story as a springboard to the White House. And like Obama, he has already written two memoirs by the age of 45 without a single legislative or practical political accomplishment of any kind aside from being elected to public office.

During his grievance-fueled performance on Rogan’s podcast, Vance lashed out once again at the Jews, alleging, among other things, that there’s an Israeli-funded plot to undermine his negotiations with Iran; some Israelis want war indefinitely for the sake of endless war; and the U.S. government has probably destroyed evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad operative.

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Regarding the Epstein matter, Smith notes Vance’s careful phrasing:

And “by the way,” he wanted to make clear, “I’ve never seen a single piece of credible evidence that the president of the United States engaged in wrongdoing with minors.”

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That’s odd wording for a man who is considered a master of the English language, insofar as it clearly leaves open the possibility that Trump did behave wrongly. That’s not accidental, writes Smith:

Why did the vice president tailor his wording to suggest that maybe his boss engaged in wrongdoing with minors? For the same reason that he attacked Jews and spread baseless rumors, for which he admits to having zero evidence, about some kind of dark plot involving Jeffrey Epstein. Now that the Iran deal that Vance favored has blown up and he’s taking heat for it, he’s showing that no one puts baby in a corner. So, he resurrects Epsteingate, predictably inspiring the dumbest people in America, and around the world, to flood social media with details from an information operation targeting Trump.

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It’s Russiagate 2.0...a way to deflect attention from his own failed foray in the world of international diplomacy. Moreover, it manages to tie together sex, anti-Trumpism, Israel, and antisemitism:

The idea the Jewish financier pimped out underage American girls to compromise liberal elites for the purpose of advancing Israeli interests was most ardently promoted by Vance’s political patron, Tucker Carlson.

And here’s a little interesting tidbit, complete from a leftist-authored book about President Trump’s first year in term two:

According to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s recent book, Regime Change, chronicling the first year of the second Trump term, Vance had originally volunteered to appear on Rogan’s podcast to put down the speculation that Trump was protecting Epstein after the narrative threatened to derail Trump 47. But now he’s mad at Trump, so the second-highest elected official in the country, described by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as a conspiracy theorist, chummed the part of the American electorate that believes a key role of the U.S. government is to disclose the nature of the laser technology gifted to us by aliens and publish Elvis’ current coordinates in the jungles of the Amazon.

Moreover, Vance knows whose fault it is that his misbegotten deal failed: The Jews. His evidence? A Time Magazine article.

When attacked for antisemitism, Vance naturally goes on the offensive, saying that no one can prove it. Smith dismisses this:

But claiming that Israelis want war for the sake of war, indefinitely, toward no specific objective, is a pretty good place to start. Vance’s denials are part of the act: I didn’t say something recognizably antisemitic; it’s on you to prove that the classic antisemitic conceit I used is antisemitic, you paranoid freak. My point is clearly just that Israelis simply kill people for no reason or purpose because they enjoy spilling blood, and they will continue doing so forever, to satisfy their perverted, inhuman lusts.

Smith has a few other choice words for Vance, whom he sees as someone willing to blow everything up to protect his own ego.

But at the end of the day, this isn’t about Vance. It’s about whether Trump can salvage America in the short time he has left:

If he can’t get the job done, which includes disciplining his number two, odds are ever increasing that in two and a half years, millions of illegal aliens will be gathered at our southern border, waiting for the next far-left Democrat to be sworn in.

Unfortunately, his Vice President isn’t helping Trump but, instead, seems determined to undermine him every step of the way.

As for me, I’ve always liked Ron DeSantis, and I’m now adding Marco Rubio to my top presidential contenders list. I’d love to see an All Florida ticket in 2028.

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