President Donald Trump‘s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, his personally appointed RNC co-chair during the 2024 presidential election, interviewed Vice President JD Vance on Fox News.
During the interview, when Ms. Trump suggested that Vance must use leadership skills he learned while an active member of the U.S. Marine Corps, Vance replied yes, “in ways big and small, actually.”
Vance added, praising the President: “It would not have shocked me if I had learned that your father-in-law had been in the Marine Corps because — of course he didn’t serve in the Marines — but he has a very Marine Corps style of leadership, where he’s very willing to delegate and he trusts certain people. And when he trusts those people he’s willing to give them a task and say ‘go into it and come back to me and report in a week.’”
Vance: It would not have shocked me if I had learned your father-in-law was in the Marine Corps—of course he didn’t serve in the Marines but he has a Marine Corps style of leadership pic.twitter.com/fBf1JAM54k
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 7, 2025
Vance’s remarks portraying Trump as a Marines-style leader drew fire in the comments with various detractors noting that Trump “dodged” the Vietnam draft five times, referring to Trump’s having received multiple draft deferments for education and another medical draft deferment for bone spurs in his feet in the 1960s. (One popular reply read: “It’s like calling a con man a surgeon because he once held a knife.”)
Naval Academy graduate and Marine veteran fighter pilot Amy McGrath excoriated Vance for his comparison, writing: “Okay, I was in the Marine Corps four times longer than JD. I can tell you that Trump’s style of leadership is 100% the opposite of everything actual leaders of Marines stand for.” (McGrath, who shattered numerous gender glass ceilings at the Pentagon, flew a reported 89 combat missions against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.)
Other critics ripped Vance for what they characterized as his sycophancy, slamming the Vice President not specifically for his portrayal of Trump as a Marines-style leader, but for his eagerness to paint a favorable picture of the President for his MAGA base even if that picture stands on a shaky premise. It’s a criticism that’s been aimed at the other members of Trump’s cabinet also, the reasons for which were on ample display at a recent televised roundtable where praise for the President appeared to be the price of entry.
The last time Donald Trump showed his face live in front of the press was Tuesday, August 26th, during a marathon three-hour cabinet meeting.
Maybe all that staged roundtable praise from his sycophants was too much for him. pic.twitter.com/P1ZlV9CLtj
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) September 1, 2025
This criticism — of Vance contorting to present a Trump-friendly vision — has precedent, as Vance has repeatedly (and admittedly) demonstrated a willingness to paint false portraits with his rhetoric, claiming that factual manipulation is necessary and justified when telling the truth doesn’t do enough to forward his aims.
In September 2024, while campaigning, Vance defended Trump’s false claim that Haitian migrants were eating domestic cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
(Trump presented the claim as fact during his debate against Kamala Harris, who called the claim “a crying shame” and warned, “When you are bestowed with a microphone that is that big, there is a profound responsibility that comes with that.”)
When the VP candidate and then-Ohio Senator Vance amplified the false claim after several officials (including the Mayor of Springfield) debunked the claim, Vance said about pushing the fictitious claim: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”