ATHENS, Georgia — A week ago, he made an appeal to Hungarian voters. On Saturday, he tried his persuasion skills on Iranian negotiators assembled in Pakistan. On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance’s targets were students at the University of Georgia.
During an hour-long break from his regular business, Vance spoke at an event sponsored by Turning Point USA, the conservative youth organization, making the case for the Trump administration’s policies while seeking to ingratiate himself with young voters. It’s an age group whose support for the president has slid in recent months — and whose backing Vance will particularly need if he decides to run for president himself.
He exchanged ideas with a heckler in the crowd shouting about death and war in Gaza, before the “random dude screaming,” as Vance described him, was removed.
He acknowledged the continued strain on young people who struggle to afford housing and other costs of living, telling the students, “You guys have every right to demand more of your elected leadership.” Vance sympathized about young Republicans’ concerns over divisions in the conservative movement and shared his fantasy of anonymously taking his family out for a pancake breakfast and a trip to the zoo.
And he praised President Donald Trump, while subtly — without saying he was doing so — drawing distinctions between his and Trump’s approaches to some questions.
Asked about Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV’s statements on foreign policy and immigration, Vance defended the pope’s role as a commentator on current events, including the war in Iran, despite pushing back on some of his rationales.
“I have a lot of respect for the pope. I like him. I admire him. I’ve gotten to know him a little bit,” said Vance, a Catholic. “It doesn’t bother me when he speaks on issues of the day, frankly, even when I disagree with how he’s applying particular principles.”
Hours after Trump told an Italian news outlet that Leo “shouldn’t be talking about war, because he has no idea what’s going on,” Vance said he likes it when the pope opines about immigration and foreign conflict.
“I like it when the pope talks about matters of war and peace, because I think that at the very least, it invites a conversation,” Vance said, while disagreeing with Leo’s declaration that God “is never on the side” of those who wield the sword. He cited as an example America’s fight during World War II to liberate people from the Nazis. But Vance said the pope being an “advocate for peace” is “certainly one of his roles.”
While defending Trump’s wording in calling the Jeffrey Epstein scandal a “hoax” — insisting that Trump was referring only to the idea that he was engaged in wrongdoing with Epstein — Vance said he wanted to ensure Epstein’s connections were thoroughly investigated. While reading emails in the files from one of Epstein’s associates that mentioned having “pizza and grape soda,” Vance said he became concerned that it “sounded like the Pizzagate conspiracy theory,” which associated those types of codewords with communications about alleged sexual abuse of children.
“And my reaction to that was, ‘We should absolutely investigate that person,’” Vance said, adding that he would follow up with administration officials to ensure that the sender of the email had been investigated.
Vance has been at the center of the Trump administration’s efforts over the past week to find an off-ramp for the war in Iran, which has proved to be unpopular with Americans. After traveling to Hungary last week to stump for Viktor Orban, the longtime far-right incumbent defeated Sunday in the election for prime minister, Vance briefly returned to Washington before setting out for Islamabad, Pakistan, where marathon talks over the weekend with Iranian officials did not result in an agreement for ending the conflict.
Here at the University of Georgia, Vance received a warm welcome, and the audience cheered for some of Trump’s policies. But some conservative students echoed the concerns of other young voters who have increasingly reported disenchantment with the president they took a chance on in 2024.
Jack Landreth, 21, was excited to vote for Trump, part of a wave of young men who flocked to the Trump-Vance campaign as the two men talked about addressing the cost of living and avoiding new foreign conflicts, among other issues.
Now, the United States is stuck in a war Trump started with Iran.
“I’m a little disappointed,” Landreth said. “I thought, like, ‘No new wars.’”
He came to see Vance on campus on Tuesday “not really sure” what to make of some of Trump’s decisions, including the president’s recent social media post appearing to depict himself as Jesus.
“I’m not regretting my vote or anything, but at the same time, I’m just hoping to get some good questions answered on why we’re doing things that we were originally against,” he said.
Jack Hurd, an 18-year-old self-described conservative Catholic student, said he hopes to see Vance as the next Republican presidential nominee. Hurd, who wasn’t eligible to vote in 2024 but said he has been a Trump fan for some time, said he was disappointed by the president’s comments disparaging the Vatican and his post of the Jesus-like image.
Vance is “doing as good a job as he can with damage control” regarding Trump’s offensive posts on Sunday, Hurd said. The Jesus post was “a terrible move by Trump,” he said, adding that he thought that feeling was “pretty much unanimously agreed on.”
“Being a good leader and being a faithful Catholic,” Hurd said, “have never been contrary to one another.”
The vice president, who had developed a close friendship with the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, had committed earlier this year to participate in Turning Point’s spring campus tour. Kirk was assassinated during a campus event in September at Utah Valley University, and the organization, now led by his widow, Erika Kirk, announced it would continue the outreach events he had long held at colleges.
Vance was scheduled to appear at the event with her, but Turning Point spokesman Andrew Kolvet interviewed the vice president onstage instead, with Kolvet explaining that Erika Kirk had “received some very serious threats” and ultimately did not attend.
In December, Erika Kirk endorsed Vance for president in 2028 and pledged that the organization would help him get elected, even though he has not confirmed that he will run.
The vice president spoke about being a father with a fourth child on the way, and about his conversations with Erika Kirk about grieving the ability to further grow her family with Charlie, who left behind two small children.
“The people telling you that Erika wasn’t grieving her husband are full of shit,” Vance said, making a reference to conspiracy theories peddled online, including by prominent conservative podcaster Candace Owens, that questioned her reaction to her husband’s death.
Trump is also scheduled to hit the road this week, including a stop in Phoenix for a separate Turning Point-sponsored event. Trump’s approval rating has sunk to its second-term low as the war with Iran has dragged on, with public polling averages putting him just below 40 percent approval and over 56 percent disapproval.
The latest Yale Youth Poll, released this week, found Trump’s approval declining particularly with young voters.
Among voters ages 18 to 34, Vance led the field of potential 2028 Republican nominees — though at 31 percent, with less support than his lead with other age groups in the survey. Attendees at the Turning Point event largely told The Washington Post that they were open to the idea of Vance being the 2028 Republican presidential nominee, but several added that they preferred or were interested in Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the ticket.
Despite being a Democrat who believes Trump is “reckless,” 21-year-old Alex Wiggins wanted to come see the vice president on campus, calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. Wiggins said he agrees with Vance on very little but respects how he seems to have tried to shy away from war.
“I kind of feel bad for JD Vance, because he was anti-war, and I think deep down, he still is,” Wiggins said. “He just kind of got, like, screwed by Trump’s decision. And I do feel bad for him for that, because it’s kind of getting like, stuck with being associated with the war, especially with having to negotiate.”
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