Vance will make his mark as the first millennial vice president and the potential MAGA torchbearer

NEW YORK (AP) — As he prepares to become the nation's first millennial vice president, JD Vance is already the presumptive heir to the “Make America Great Again” movement.

Vance hasn't been assigned a specific portfolio in the White House like some of his predecessors. While he has long-standing areas of interest, from tech and disaster relief to immigration, people close to the former Ohio senator say he sees his role as doing whatever is needed to best help President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration accomplish his agenda. He is also expected to be a liaison to Capitol Hill, leveraging relationships he built during his two years in the Senate.

“I would say JD’s the guy that will plug any hole or be as beneficial to the administration and be as beneficial to President Trump as possible,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a friend and ally.

Moreno said Vance would also continue the role he played during the campaign as Trump’s chief messenger, defending him on television and jousting with reporters.

"His most important job is to be out there and be President Trump’s pit bull,” said Moreno. When Trump needs somebody to defend him or his policies, he added, “JD’s going to be the guy that leads the troops to have President Trump’s back.”

It has been an astounding eight years for the 40-year-old “Hillbilly Elegy” author, who has transformed himself from a former venture capitalist and harsh Trump critic. Vance will be a critical part not just of Trump's return to the White House but the future of his political movement. With Trump prevented by the Constitution from running in 2028, Vance is a natural successor.

But first, he needs to stay in Trump's good graces.

Trump's decision to tap Vance as his No. 2 landed with a thud at first.

Vance faced a barrage of criticism over his past remarks deriding women who weren't parents as “childless cat ladies” and for suggesting those without biological children should not be in positions of power. Headlines panned him as the least popular vice presidential candidate in modern history.

But Vance soon delivered a widely praised performance during the vice presidential debate and established himself as a top Trump surrogate, someone who regularly answered reporters' questions and sat for interviews with outlets of all stripes. He once appeared on three Sunday shows in a single day.

Vance's willingness to wade into sometimes hostile territory earned Trump's praise.

“He is a feisty guy, isn’t he?” Trump said during his victory speech the night of the election, describing how he had instructed Vance to “go into the enemy camp." While some Republicans might have resisted going on CNN or speaking with The New York Times, Trump said, Vance "really looks forward to it, and then he just goes in and absolutely obliterates them.”

Vance, he added, “turned out to be a good choice. I took a little heat at the beginning, but he was — I knew the brain was a good one, about as good as it gets."

Things didn’t go so well for Trump’s last vice president.

Mike Pence, who was unfailingly loyal to his boss, ended his term fleeing from a violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, after he refused to go along with Trump’s scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump would not forgive Pence, blaming him for their loss, and turned legions of his supporters against his second-in-command. Pence would end his own bid for the 2024 nomination months before the first votes were cast after struggling to raise money or draw significant crowds.

“Pence and Trump started off on this same footing, with the same high expectations, and had a great working relationship,” said Devin O’Malley, the vice president’s former press secretary and senior adviser to his campaign. O’Malley stressed that he did not expect things to end up the same way for Vance, whom he said “appears to be hitting all the marks to be successful in the role.”

While Trump and Pence were always said to be close before their split, they had very different personalities. Trump picked Pence, someone he barely knew, in part to assuage evangelical Christians alarmed over Trump's behavior and to win over other Republicans skeptical of his outsider candidacy.

Aides have long described Trump and Vance as real friends who enjoy each other’s company. The two speak almost every day on the phone, in person or by text.

Unlike Pence, Vance is also ideologically aligned with Trump on major issues ranging from trade to the use of U.S. forces overseas. He is close to Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and has developed strong relationships with incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles, senior adviser Stephen Miller and others.

He also has ties to the new generation of tech billionaires ascendant in Trump's orbit, including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, who once employed Vance and backed his rise in politics.

While 2028 is years away, Vance for now is seen by many as the natural torchbearer for the MAGA movement, even as other Republicans with national ambitions circle nearby.

Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller called him “the future of the Republican Party and this movement that President Trump has started.”

“I really see him as being the person to be the flag bearer going forward, following President Trump,” he said at a recent gathering of business leaders.

When he is sworn in on Monday, Vance will make history as the first millennial to serve in the role and the first vice president in nearly two decades with young children.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., recently traveled with Vance to North Carolina to meet with victims of Hurricane Helene. She suggested his relative youth on the national stage gave Vance certain advantages including a comfort with social media and different communication style.

“I think because he is younger he has a boldness that – with the exception of President Trump – as you age, your boldness I think becomes shade by lessons learned over the years,” Capito said.

People close to Vance like to stress that he is a regular person — “about as normal a guy as there’s ever been in politics,” Moreno said — with a working-class background.

“He’ll wear sweatshirts. He roots for sports teams... He’s a guy’s guy. He’s a bro’s bro," said Terry Schilling, president of American Principles Project, who has been advising Vance informally on cultural and family issues since he started running for the Senate. "He’ll have a beer with you. He'll watch a football game with you. He'll tease you, he’ll rib you. He’s also going to work hard and be serious when he needs to.”

Indeed, after his beloved Ohio State clinched a spot in the national football championship game, Vance took to social media to bemoan his dilemma. The Buckeyes play Notre Dame for the title in Atlanta on Monday night, hours after he and Trump are set to be sworn into office.

“Hopefully everyone is cool with me skipping the inauguration so I can go to the national title game,” Vance joked on X, sharing a mock comic strip featuring two red buttons — “Attend your own inauguration” and “Go watch the Buckeyes win a national title” — and a sweating superhero torn between them.

It was the kind of quip relatable to any sports fan and the latest burnishing of his regular-guy persona.

But Vance is scheduled to stay in Washington — even if he'll be checking his phone at the Liberty Ball.

Vice President-elect JD Vance smiles after the certification for Ohio is read during a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Vice President-elect JD Vance is congratulated after a joint session of Congress confirmed the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Vice President-elect JD Vance is congratulated after a joint session of Congress confirmed the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump stands on stage with former first lady Melania Trump, family members and Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, during the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Republicans congratulate Vice President-elect JD Vance after a joint session of Congress convened to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

FILE - Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Vice President-elect JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance arrive before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Vice President-elect JD Vance smiles after the certification for Ohio is read during a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Vice President-elect JD Vance smiles after the certification for Ohio is read during a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Vice President-elect JD Vance speaks during a dinner event at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Vice President-elect JD Vance, left, and his wife, Usha Vance, arrive to a dinner event at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.

Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.

“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.

But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)