US Vice President JD Vance condemned white nationalist Nick Fuentes and his supporters, saying, “anyone who attacks my wife… can eat s***,” and argued that Fuentes’s influence on the Right is overstated in an interview with UnHerd on Monday.
Since 2024, Fuentes has repeatedly spoken against Vance's wife, Usha, calling her a "j***" (an offensive slur against Indian people) and calling Vance a 'race traitor' for marrying her.
Vance, who has faced calls for a clearer break with Fuentes and the “Groyper” movement, said most Americans reject antisemitism and that current tensions reflect a broader backlash against long-standing foreign policy assumptions.
He defended maintaining friendships with figures such as Tucker Carlson while rejecting “purity tests” inside the movement. The comments come amid an intensifying intra-conservative fight over Israel and foreign policy.
Vance said Fuentes serves as a “useful foil” for some pro-Israel conservatives, allowing them to avoid a substantive discussion about US policy toward Israel. He insisted that robust debate is healthy and that disagreements with Israel are compatible with strong alliance ties, UnHerd reported.
Vance: Stopping immigration key to eliminating US antisemitism
Last week, Vance also claimed that “the single most significant thing you could do to eliminate antisemitism” is reducing immigration to the United States.Vance also laid out his attitude about criticism of Israel, tweeting, “I would say there’s a difference between not liking Israel (or disagreeing with a given Israeli policy) and anti-semitism.”
Philissa Cramer/JTA contributed to this report.