When Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his vice president, I'll admit that I didn't know much about him, other than that he was a senator from Ohio who'd written a best-selling book. And all I knew about his wife, Usha, was that she was smart. She has a bachelor's degree in history from Yale and attended law school there before clerking for Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Judge Amul Thapar. But I wanted to know more. After all, they're the first couple to join the executive branch who are of my generation. Was that the extent of their relatability?
Since Inauguration Day, I think the entire country has learned more and more about the Vances and how down-to-earth they are. Whether they're carrying their pajama-clad children off a plane or not hiding their awe when realizing how much their lives have changed — how they've suddenly become an important part of history — over the last year, JD and Usha Vance are just like us. And while Mrs. Vance has been making appearances here and there, we haven't really gotten to know her as a person. Until now.
Usha appeared on Meghan McCain's podcast "Citizen McCain" last week, and while I hadn't planned on writing about it initially, the mainstream media, as usual, either ignored it or used it to promote their anti-Donald Trump agendas. For example: "... she must be appalled by the Trump administration’s attacks on academia, law firms, judges, diversity programs and immigrants," the New York Times claims after supposedly talking to some friends of hers. That line was all I needed to know about that article.
Related: Meet Usha Vance, America's Second Lady
Usha was once registered as a Democrat. She's married to a Republican. Her career has taken her all over the map if you want to try to pinpoint her exact political leanings. Non-anonymous people who have known her have said she's not overly political, and her husband said she guides him in all his political career decisions. But at the end of the day, what does any of it matter? She's not a politician. She's not shaping policy. She's just a mom and a wife and a woman with a career and a million other things, as we all are. Why is the left so obsessed with trying to put her into a box? I'll answer that myself: Because that's what they do. Leftists don't see people as individuals.
Many on the left also seem to think that at the end of the day, nothing — and I mean nothing — is more important about a person than their politics. And I'm grateful to McCain for giving Mrs. Vance an outlet to let us learn a little more about who she is as an individual. She talked about her background, which I won't rehash, but what I really thought was fun is that she went into some detail about how she and the vice president first met. Despite rumors that the "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua set them up, they were on a library tour at Yale, and for a long time, they were just friends.
"He was funny. He, you know, didn't take everything too seriously. He was just obviously really good friend material right off the bat," Usha said, adding, "And so I was drawn to him for that reason. And I think that persisted for quite some time. And it really was when he later on in our second semester, when he started to talk more about where he was from and what made him this kind of person who I just found so appealing that I started to think of him in this different way as something other than a friend, but of the more interesting people I'd ever met in my life."
However, Chua did sort of help JD out of a "crisis." It seems that after he was chasing so much that wasn't in his heart, she kind of helped him realize what was most important to him.
"That meant that we were able to follow some of my legal career's twists and turns geographically and be together and get married earlier than we would have been if we'd made these different decisions. And I give her much credit for just understanding that that really is the most important thing," Usha said.
One thing that stood out to me is that Usha said she felt "honored" when JD shared his past with her for the first time, something he didn't necessarily like to do back then. "It felt like a very special experience to me, and it still feels like a very special experience," she said.
Usha also talked about raising their children in a two-faith household (she's Hindu and JD is Catholic). She said the kids go to Catholic school and are given the choice to be baptized — so far, their oldest son has chosen to do so — but they also teach them about the Hindu faith, culture, and traditions through books, traveling, and time spent with Usha's parents and grandmother.
Speaking of their children, who are currently eight, five, and three years old, Usha said that she and JD both wanted to be parents going into their marriage. She just wanted to have two initially, but she said three ended up being the number that felt right. However, she said, sometimes, she thinks the vice president wants to go for number four. When McCain asked her if she was open to a fourth child, the second lady said "never say never" but admitted she's enjoying that they're out of the baby stage and their kids can do many things independently.
Something else I thought was kind of cool is that the Vances do not rely on devices like tablets to babysit their children, even when they're on planes. She also talked about letting them grow up in the public eye. She said she wants the kids to experience big events, like the military parade or their father's travels, because they would want to even if they were living their "normal" lives back in Ohio, but they also want to keep them grounded at home. They still have to put away their laundry and clean up their messes.
So, how does Usha feel about the way her own life has changed? It's a little strange and "uncomfortable" for her at times, whether it's the "security element," the way people treat her now, or just the feeling of walking home from the gym or out to get a coffee without without worrying about how she looks and someone takes a photograph of her.
"I try to do that every day, just have a normal life that is in public and ignore that people are watching it," she said, adding, "And I hope that I hope that that is helpful, right? That it shows that you can be in a position of some prominence in in the public eye, but still sort of be a part of this generation and do the same things that everyone else does."
Usha also finds that now that she is not working, she has more time for personal growth activities. She said she's spending more time at the gym, reading a backlog of books, taking German lessons, and even making toys for her kids. But McCain asked her if she thinks she'll eventually become the country's first lady. She'll go with the flow as she has so far — she says she and JD found out he was Trump's VP about five minutes before the rest of the world — but she's not planning for it.
I'm not plotting out next steps or really trying for anything after this. And in a dream world, eventually I'll be able to live in my home and kind of continue my career and all those sorts of things. And if that happens in four years, I understand. If that happens at some other point in the future, I understand. Just sort of along for the ride and enjoying it while I can.
Last but not least, and perhaps, most importantly, Vance promoted her summer reading challenge, and it sounds like literacy may be an important platform for the second lady over the next few years. Here's what she had to say:
So why I chose this? The backdrop is, of course, that literacy scores have been dropping. I mean, they've been dropping consistently, and it's not just COVID related, though that accelerated it.
So kids are just reading less and able to read less to begin with. And then I have and I think most parents of kids, you know, my kids' age have a great deal of concern about what the future looks like with the devices that they have. Right? I mean, I know when I have my iPhone on me, it's a constant distraction. It messes with my ability to reflect on things, to focus. I have to put it in another room. And I think I'm pretty good about that. But I know that I'm I'm worse at a kind of attention than I was when I was 15 or even 25.
And it really worries me, right? Like, I don't want that for my children. I want them to be able to sit down and focus on what they it is that they want to think about, to really dive deep into it and to come to their own conclusions about things that are informed by that kind of reflection. So the summer reading challenge is the first, I think, of many small attempts to make a difference and to see what actually works at drawing children into the world of, you know, things and not of devices and giving them the time and space to just think.
I think literacy is maybe the antidote to all of this. I mean, the more you get drawn into a book, the less you're doing something else. The more you're excited about a new idea, the more you want to pick up that idea and continue following it through other books, through museums, through movies, through whatever it is.
So the Summer Reading Challenge is kind of a first attempt to tackle that by giving a positive alternative to the kinds of things that might distract little kids at their age. But we're thinking about all sorts of other ways, like little interventions, ways of enticing kids to pick up books. You'll see us roll those out, I think, over the course of the next year.
This year's summer reading challenge involved reading 12 books this summer, and one grand prize winner gets a trip to meet the Vances and a personal tour of the White House. She said she hopes to roll it out on a broader scale next year. You can read more about this year's challenge here: Usha Vance Issues an Important Summer Challenge for Your Children.
You can also listen to the full "Citizen McCain" podcast episode here or watch the interview on YouTube.
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