If you’re wondering where Vice President JD Vance is right now, a good guess to make is on vacation.
Since Trump took office again in January, Vance has gone skiing in Vermont and run after his kids in Disneyland. He went boating with his family in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and again for his birthday in Ohio, where the Army Corps of Engineers changed the outflow of a lake to create “ideal kayaking conditions,” one source told the Guardian.
Most recently, he went to the U.K., where he vacationed in the posh Cotswolds before golfing in Scotland. Even on diplomatic visits, he has made personal time to tour the Taj Mahal in India with his family.
Media outlets have estimated that Vance has taken eight vacations in his first seven months in office.
Vance’s life of leisure to ski, golf and visit Disneyland with his family wouldn’t be a problem if Vance were a private citizen, but as an elected official, the visibility and the frequency of his off-time is notable –– and receiving criticism. Locals are not always happy when the Vances come to town; Vance’s wife, Usha, received pushback after her private Rome Colosseum tour closed the landmark to the public.
“It does seem like he is on these vacations a bit more than normal,” said Karyn Amira, an associate professor of political science at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
And the frequency and choice of vacation spots might be saying more about Vance’s relationship to Trump and Vance’s views on the role of his office than you might think, political scientists suggested.
One Theory For Why Vance Vacations So Much May Be Due To Trump.
Vice presidents are both essential and useless as the next in line for the presidency, and as politicians, they’re granted little actual power. The fact that Vance has been seen hanging out more in leisurely polos than in suits in Washington could be sending signals about his outsider role in President Donald Trump’s orbit.
“That Vice President Vance has spent so much time away from the White House is a throwback to the earlier era,” said Matthew Beckmann, a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. “Historically, Vice Presidents were kept on the presidential periphery, outside of the president’s inner circle, far from the Oval Office. John Adams captured the spirit: ‘I am vice president. In this I am nothing. But I may be everything.’”
Vice Presidents became more important when President Jimmy Carter made Walter Mondale a key White House counselor, he noted. Since then, these second-in-commands “have tended to have far more access and influence during their time in office.”
“The real question is who is driving the Vice President’s schedule. Is the Vice President eager to stay away or the President eager to keep him away?” Beckmann continued.
In other words, Vance vacationing his days away might be by design of his limited status within the Trump administration.
“Some people say, ‘A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it.’ Others say the same of the vice presidency,” Beckmann said.
Vance Could Be Trying To Send Other Messages, Too.
Amira said one overarching signal Vance might also be communicating is “I get to do fun things that would be somewhat more expensive than just renting a beach house.” If you relate to Vance taking his family to Disneyland, you might also respond positively to signals of “family man, I’m a dad,” that his visits communicate, Amira said.
But by taking so many costly vacations in less than a year, Vance is flaunting a power to rest and recharge from work that few Americans believe they have. The average worker gets between 11 and 20 days of vacation for the whole year, depending on their industry and years of service, and they are often too stressed to use it all.
While almost half of Americans do receive some paid time off from their job for vacations, doctor’s appointments or minor illnesses, they still will end up taking less time than they are offered because they are worried about falling behind on work or feel bad their co-workers will have to pick up the slack in their absence. They sometimes even need their co-workers to donate their days off, so they can cobble together some leave to recover from cancer treatments.
The frequency of Vance’s vacations can be a sign of how out of touch he is to the reality of most working Americans. Wherever Vance goes to vacation, protesters often will follow, and yet that hasn’t seemed to stop the vice president from taking time off for leisurely pursuits.
But that may just be the point.
These vacations “could also just signal that he doesn’t care,” Amira said. “This is an administration that just does what they want, and if that just means going on vacation, then that’s what it is.”
“Sorry to all the people who were at Disneyland for the longer lines,” Vance said on a podcast hosted by the wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “But we had a very good time.” Must be nice.