Summary

JD Vance is actively working to raise his profile in the Trump administration after being overshadowed by Elon Musk.

During a recent Oval Office meeting, Vance took the lead to criticize Zelensky as “disrespectful,” setting up Trump to criticize Zelensky.

According to New York Times reporter Michael Shear, this confrontational approach is part of Vance’s strategy to avoid being “relegated to the B-team” in what has become “one of the most fast-paced and aggressive administrations in modern history.”

  • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
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    21 hours ago

    Sorry to break it to you, guyliner, but under Trump you’ll always be the b-team, at max. He’ll throw you under the bus in a second if it serves his agenda.

    And in this case you’re struggling to reach even that segment as you’re clearly outranked by a terminally online immigrant numpty who just want friends.

    • notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Firstly, “guyliner”?!:) I love it!!! Guyliner Couchthrob (it’s immature but it contains no less truth than most of the things that come out of his mouth…).

      On the actual context, and as some of the other comments line it out, there appear to be 3 subtle concurrent fault lines here:

      1. Trump who is only for himself (and putin).
      2. Musk
      3. The tech broligarchy whose goal is long-term power consolidation through propping up Guyliner Couchthrob as the successor

      I think it’s clear that trump will throw musk under the bus when he’ll need a sudden boost in popularity. His plans with Guyliner are much less clear, I’m sure he’s considering to keep him for medvedev/putin type of setup (from back when russia had term limits, LOL).

      • neidu3@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        I heard “guyliner” on a podcast. Don’t remember which, so I won’t take credit for that one. WTYP, probably.

        Also, I’m not against guys wearing eyeliner in a reasonable manner (which Vance objectively does), it was just that it is the only visual and noteworthy trait about him.

        • notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          There’s nothing wrong with his ottoman erotic fixation either.:)

          Jokes aside, I think guyliner is fair game to mock someone trying to be the arbiter of “traditional masculinity”.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    I am hopeful that this means a bit more. Vance was catapulted into politics with money from Peter Thiel. If he is at risk of being relegated to the B-team maybe that means that Thiel and Trump are on the outs. Maybe Trump thinks he doesn’t need Thiel’s money anymore now that he has Musk’s money.

    The best hope for Democracy in America right now is if our new Oligarchs get too distracted fighting each other that they do a bit less damage, and accidentally let an actual election through in 2026.

    • DokPsy@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      This was my hope once the results came in. That they’d be too busy fighting each other for power to actually cause too much lasting damage

      • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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        20 hours ago

        I’m eagerly waiting. For now, it’s at best a circular firing squad with the world in the middle. They have terrible aim but statistically we’re still all gonna die.

    • errer@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Don’t kid yourself, Thiel and Musk founded PayPal together and despite prior friction they’ve always been on the same team. In fact Musk becoming a full blown fascist has been Musk’s “return to Jesus” moment as far as Thiel is concerned.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        Note that Musk was not a PayPal founder, he helped found “X”, a PayPal competitor that wasn’t really doing that well, but managed to merge with PayPal after PayPal was winning the market.

        Musk was also the one who about ran PayPal into the ground with incompetence and he was forced out of decision making to save the company.

        Don’t know if this changes anything relative to Thiel, but just wanted to highlight that Musk gets credited with PayPal but his history is first losing to them as a competitor and nearly ruining them as a leader, and finally getting a big sum off money for eBay for his failures…

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      17 hours ago

      No, the best hope for democracy in America right now is for the populace to protest. Hard. You can’t sit there and hope the problem away. You have to get up and make it happen. Fascism doesn’t just go away. You have to cut it out of the system.

      I know it’s hard to come to terms with, but the sooner you realize the better it’ll be. Everyone seems to be sitting there waiting for someone else to swoop down and save things, and that’s exactly the kind of thinking that led you where you are. The founding fathers put the power with the people because they realized that’s where the actual power was. You’ve all forgotten that and have become complacent.

      Don’t allow this to go on.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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      16 hours ago

      Thiel likes to work from the shadows, moreso than the first term, where he was personally interacting with trump, I’m guessing the anti-lgbqt+ sentiment is the reason why he’s not so public anymore( indirectly which led to his boy toy models death)

  • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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    21 hours ago

    Bruh. You’re the vice president. Your fucking job is to be the head of the b-team. Amazing how the fragile old man shit baby managed to find a fragile middle aged shit baby to be his running mate

    • jaybone@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Yeah most vice presidents don’t sit next to the president when he has Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders. He should be out kissing babies and visiting donut shops and shit.

      Now we’ve got Trump, musk and Vance all trying to be the biggest dickheads in the room

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        most vice presidents don’t sit next to the president

        For rather important security reasons

        Now we’ve got Trump, musk and Vance all trying to be the biggest dickheads in the room

        Once Boeing finishes the new Air Force One, they should all have their dickwaving contests on board, it’d be grand. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the plane.

  • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    Sorry JV. With musk running the show, it’s not too clear where you fit into the chain of command. But you’re definitely not making varsity.