Vice President JD Vance just got slammed by his cousin who fought on the front lines in Ukraine to defend it from Russia’s invasion. In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Nate Vance accused the vice president and President Donald Trump of turning the U.S. into “useful idiots” for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
Further, the 47-year-old Texas native said he was “disappointed” in JD Vance, who Nate Vance said is usually “good” and “intelligent,” even if those qualities have never been apparent to voters or even Trump.
“When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that it was because he had to please a certain electorate and that it was a political game,” Nate Vance said. “But what they did to Zelensky was an ambush of absolute bad faith.”
By that, Nate Vance was referring to a late February meeting between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and JD Vance where the vice president helped Trump ridicule the U.S. ally as they talked in the Oval Office. Not only did JD Vance break out in a chuckle when a reporter for a conservative news outlet asked why Zelenskyy wasn’t wearing a suit—a decision Zelenskyy has been very clear about—but also the vice president berated him for not being more gracious about receiving U.S. military support.
Since then, Trump suspended military and intelligence support to Ukraine in its war against Russia, which has emboldened the latter country to “really step up the attacks,” according to a former U.S. national security official who spoke with CBS News.
“When JD justified his distrust of Zelensky by the ‘reports’ he had seen, I thought I was going to choke,” Nate Vance said. “His own cousin was on the frontline. I could have told him the truth, plain and simple, without any personal agenda. He never tried to find out more.”
A local woman rides a bicycle on April 18, 2024, in front of a building destroyed by a Russian airstrike in the frontline town of Orikhiv, Ukraine.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that JD Vance has disrespected a U.S. ally.
Earlier this month, the vice president received flak from Britons for disrespecting British forces after he alleged that a U.S. stake in Ukraine’s economy was “a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought in a war in 30 or 40 years.” Both Britain and France had spearheaded talks for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine; both countries have also fought in U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
To be sure, what happened in Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022 was nothing short of a tragedy. Schools were bombed. Millions have been displaced. And there was a staggering death toll. But the Trump administration has made overt overtures with Putin, whose decision to invade Ukraine violated international law. In one of his more outrageous claims, Trump also falsely referred to Zelenskyy as a “dictator.”
During his interview, Nate Vance expressed disappointment with his first cousin.
“You’re family but that doesn’t mean I’m going to accept the fact that you’re getting my comrades killed,” he said.
Nate Vance left the Ukrainian war in January, after JD Vance was sworn in as vice president, and kept his relationship with him under wraps due to possible repercussions of being captured. Nate Vance said he’s tried to reach out to his cousin but hasn’t received a response. Perhaps that’s because the vice president has other matters to attend to, such as responding to the memes spread on social media where his face has been digitally altered to give him cartoonishly chubby cheeks.
But Nate Vance isn’t the only one who has a bone to pick with the vice president. According to an Axios reporter, he was heckled at the National League of Cities conference in Washington, D.C.
And over the weekend, pro-Ukrainian protestors confronted him in Cincinnati, Ohio. While Vance, a known liar, said the group was “chasing” him and his 3-year-old daughter—a falsehood that was later debunked.
“No one was chasing him,” one of the protestors in attendance told WCPO 9 News.
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