JD Vance on AI, Entitlement Fraud, Iran War, Israel, H-1B Abuse & the Midterms

J.D. Vance (0:01)

Hi, James David Vance. Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

David Sacks (0:08)

Congratulations, Mr. Vice President.

J.D. Vance (0:11)

We're the senior partner, we're the world superpower. That's the way that it works. This is not just theft of the American people's money, this is also theft of critical services that the American people rely on. This is a problem that has festered in this country for far too long. You stop socialism by making people's lives better, and that's what we're trying to do every single day. We gotta take care of business this November, then we'll worry about what comes next.

Jason Calacanis (0:36)

Please welcome Vice President JD Vance.

Jason Calacanis (0:54)

All right. Nice to see you, Mr. Vice President. How are you?

J.D. Vance (0:59)

I'm good. I'm good. Jason, I caught the very tail end of that panel discussion, and you were asking somebody about how their life had changed. I couldn't see who it was, but asking how their life had changed.

They had been in the big house, which it appears to me you meant prison, but I thought you were talking about the Michigan football team.

Chamath Palihapitiya (1:16)

Stadium they played in.

J.D. Vance (1:17)

So very different understanding of what you were talking about, and what was actually going on.

Chamath Palihapitiya (1:22)

Yeah.

Jason Calacanis (1:23)

Well, it's great to have you back. We always appreciate that you take the time to join The Besties and have a very candid, honest discussion. This is your, I think, third or fourth time on the program, and it's a great time to be on the program because you're halfway through your term approximately and the midterms are coming up.

Maybe you could assess what's went really well for and what you're proud of with this first two years. And then let's get into some things that maybe your own constituents are not happy with. And let's start with the positive. What do you think you've accomplished in these first two years?

J.D. Vance (2:02)

Well, look, I think the two things that I'm most proud of are, first of all, we actually got control of the southern border, but started to reverse the flow of illegal immigration. It was just about 3 million lower today than it was when we came into office. Obviously, there's a lot more to do. But if you look at the history of Western governments in the postwar era, they opened the border, they invite border invasions, but they never actually reverse it. At best, they slow it down. I think President Trump is the first president in my lifetime to actually reverse that flow of illegal immigration. I'm extremely proud of that. I'm also proud, as you guys know, I've been obsessively focused on this.

I've been obsessively focused on this for a long time, which is the idea of re-industrializing and recapitalizing the manufacturing base of the United States of America.

This was a bipartisan consensus that leaned into globalization, that bought into this idea that you could have a prosperous economy that was built entirely around services, tech and finance, and the reality, of course, is that to have a truly prosperous economy, you still have to make stuff. I think Donald Trump understood that better than anybody else. Obviously, it takes a long time to rebuild the manufacturing base of the country, but if you look at the trillions of dollars in new investment, the new construction, the new manufacturing facilities being built, I do think that you're seeing the obvious signs that over the past 18 months, we've reversed a 40-year trend. Now, Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take longer to fully undo the damage wrought by the last 40 years, but the fact that we're actually on the right pathway is a signature achievement of Donald Trump, but I think it's the thing that he will be remembered for. Even more than the border, he will be remembered for ending the sort of consensus around globalization and actually enacting policies that get us on the right track again.

Jason Calacanis (3:44)

I think we all agree with those two, and just absolute congratulations on that. You guys have crushed it. I think we all concur.

Your constituents, the people who voted for you, are extremely frustrated about two issues. Let's just tackle them head on. The first is, you promised us you wouldn't start a foreign war. You promised us you wouldn't start a foreign war in the Middle East specifically. And then you promised you would get inflation under control. You haven't been able to get inflation under control. Still three or four percent this year. It's not looking good. And Americans, specifically the people who voted for you, Mr. Vice President, are very upset about starting this war. What is your message to them? How do these two issues get resolved? Because people are very unhappy about it.