Second Lady Usha Vance was a secret adviser on a high-stakes minerals deal with Ukraine this year, White House chronicler Jonathan Karl claims in a forthcoming book.
The question of whether the February deal had been legally vetted emerged during talks between President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Karl writes that’s when the VP stepped in to offer his wife’s legal expertise.
“I can have Usha take a look at it,” Vance said, according to Politico, which obtained an excerpt of Karl’s book.
Usha, a 39-year-old Yale Law graduate, has no experience in national security law, having previously worked in civil litigation and appeals, including past stints clerking for Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Still, Trump has repeatedly placed his trust in allies over experts, as evidenced by his appointment of the one-time environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as his choice of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon.
Vance followed through on his offer and asked Usha to review the deal. She reportedly visited the West Wing to go over the agreement, but it is unclear whether she offered any revisions.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Separately, Trump also sought advice on the deal from Stephen Bannon, his first-term White House adviser who is now a MAGA podcaster actively pushing to end presidential term limits to keep Trump in power beyond January 2029.
Karl wrote of the minerals deal scene, “And with that, the vice president asked the Second Lady of the United States—who, like Steve Bannon, had no role whatsoever on the National Security Council—to come over to the West Wing and review a bilateral agreement that was supposed to be signed the next day.”
That mineral deal ultimately fell apart. Zelensky was ambushed the following day by Vance, who accused him in an Oval Office meeting of not being grateful enough for U.S. support in his country’s war against Russia. Zelensky, who was expected to sign the deal after the Oval meeting, was ordered out of the White House by Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the rare earths deal was signed.
Word of Usha’s involvement in the deal contrasts with the public’s perception that she is a mostly hands-off second lady. She has kept a mostly low profile since Inauguration Day. However, she also launched a summer reading challenge and traveled with her husband on his high-profile Greenland visit, on his first trip to speak with European leaders, and on a visit to Israel this week.
Usha’s name made headlines earlier this week after former President Joe Biden’s one-time press secretary, Jenn Psaki, controversially suggested she may need saving from her marriage.
“I think the little Manchurian candidate, JD Vance, wants to be president more than anything else,” Psaki said on a podcast, adding, “I always wonder what’s going on in the mind of his wife. Like, are you OK? Please blink four times. We’ll come over here. We’ll save you.”
Usha did not address the remark, but the VP said he found it “disgraceful.”
The post Usha’s Secret Role at Heart of Top Trump Deal Exposed appeared first on The Daily Beast.
