Vance caught in the crossfire of conservative civil war

Vice President JD Vance has become a point of contention among the feuding factions of the conservative movement given his status as President Donald Trump’s heir-apparent and his recent appearance at a TPUSA event highlighted the daunting task before him of building a coalition in time for the 2028 primary.

Some of the current division within the right-wing coalition is an extension of the decade-long establishment resistance to Trumpism, especially with respect to his embrace of a realist foreign policy. Hard-line supporters of “America First” have sought to apply the non-interventionist approach to Israel and its conflicts, sparking conflict with Evangelicals and Zionists, whose support for that country has long been the dominant position of the GOP. 

But the divide has spread well beyond foreign policy and into broader questions of American identity. Young conservatives and so-called “Groypers” (supporters of right-wing provocateur Nick Fuentes) increasingly reject the “nation of immigrants” narrative in favor of a heritage and faith-based version of American identity that emphasizes the nation’s Christian and European character.

For Vance, the challenge is in addressing the demands of the younger generation for dramatic change without alienating enough of the older GOP so as to become unelectable.

This week, he fielded questions from college students at a TPUSA event at Ole Miss in Mississippi. Though he stopped shy of embracing Groyper positions, his answers seemed to indicate an awareness of the shifting political winds. His comments came amid ongoing furor from the pro-Israel wing of the GOP against Tucker Carlson, a stalwart Vance ally, for interviewing Fuentes.

The Groypers opposed Trump in 2024, with Fuentes asserting that he was likely to be too supportive of Israel and that a Trump presidency risked an Iranian conflict, which did occur, albeit briefly. Nevertheless, Fuentes seemed to signal openness to backing Vance this week should he be more accommodating toward his wing of the movement.

“If JD Vance condemns the Groypers, if JD Vance signals to the Israel First lobby that he is condemning the America First movement, then we will not vote for him, we will not support him and, as a matter of fact, we will show up in Iowa and then New Hampshire and then Nevada and South Carolina to make sure that he never gets the nomination,” Fuentes said this week. 

Palantir and big tech

One aspect of the vice president’s background that has younger conservatives looking sideways is his connection to Peter Thiel, who currently chairs the board of Palantir. Vance worked for Thiel in the private sector and the billionaire has been a donor and prominent supporter of his political career.

Palantir, in particular, has faced considerable scrutiny from right-wing youth wary of its mass data collection, potential for surveillance, and the company’s explicit support for Israel. 

“I get asked about Palantir a lot because there’s this Internet meme out there that somehow I am super in bed with Palantir,” Vance said. “Sometimes they’re gonna do things that we don’t like.” He further urged Americans to demand that private companies like Palantir protect user data and to be wary of the prospect of AI expanding surveillance.

Surveillance is not the only element of big tech that has younger conservatives concerned, however. Silicon Valley has become notorious among young men for its use of the H-1B visa to staff tech jobs, ostensibly due to a shortage of skilled workers. But the combination of American tech grads facing high unemployment, companies like Amazon and Microsoft announcing layoffs, and the importance of Indian visa workers, has led many to view the program as a ploy to exploit cheap foreign labor.

Vance himself opposed the H-1B program last Christmas, when Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk started a public Cabinet fight over ending the program, which overwhelmingly awards visas to South Asian applicants. Despite his stance, however, some Groypers have questioned his sincerity in light of his marriage to an Indian woman.

Faith and family

At Ole Miss, Vance faced a question about his interfaith marriage, to which he replied that he hoped second lady Usha Vance would eventually embrace the Christian faith as he had. He further clarified that he was raising his children as Catholics.

“Do I hope eventually that she is somehow moved [to join the] church? Yeah, I honestly, I do wish that because I believe in the Christian gospel,” he said. “And I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way. If she does not, then god says everybody has free will and so that does not cause a problem for me.”   

Vance’s reply generated intense criticism online, especially from non-Christians. Right-wing Canadian media figure Ezra Levant, for instance, accused Vance of throwing his wife’s religion “under the bus” for the acceptance of the Groypers.

“Posts like this wreak of anti-Christian bigotry,” Vance replied. “Yes, Christians have beliefs. And yes, those beliefs have many consequences, one of which is that we want to share them with other people. That is a completely normal thing, and anyone who's telling you otherwise has an agenda.”

Israel

American support for Israel and the strength of that nation’s lobby currently rank among the most divisive issues on the political right, with old guard GOP institutions aggressively defending the current arrangement from the criticisms of the Fuentes faction.

Vance found himself pressed by a student on the situation and attempted to articulate something of a compromise position. He strongly denied suggestions that Trump or the White House were under the control of the Israeli government and insisted that the U.S. had heavily pressured Israel to comply with the terms of the current ceasefire deal in Gaza.

“The President of the United States could only get that peace deal done by actually being willing to apply leverage to the State of Israel,” he said. “So, when people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the President of the United States, they're not controlling this president in the United States, which is one of the reasons why we’ve been able to have some of the success that we've had in the Middle East.”

He did appeal to Christians to cooperate with Israel to protect Christian holy sites, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He affirmed, however, that “[w]hat I'm not OK with is any country coming before the interest of American citizens, and it is important for all of us, assuming we're American citizens, to put the interest of our own country first.”

Vance allies circle the wagons

Carlson’s interview with Fuentes this week generated considerable calls for mainstream institutions and political figures to blacklist him from their events. Early this week, speculation arose that the Heritage Foundation would do so in light of an apparent website change that seemed to erase the organization’s links to Carlson’s network.

Heritage President Kevin Roberts, however, unambiguously denied that the organization planned to distance itself from Carlson. He further stated that his loyalty was to “Christ first and to America, only.” Roberts subsequently urged conservatives against reflexively supporting a foreign nation at the whims of what he called the “globalist class.”

Roberts explicitly stated that Carlson “always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”

“I disagree with, and even abhor, things that Nick Fuentes says. But canceling him is not the answer either,” Roberts stated. He then referred to Vance as a friend and quoted his remarks about opposing the interests of a foreign nation coming ahead of Americans.

Fuentes himself thanked Roberts for defending Carlson, adding “I don’t know what exactly you ‘abhor’ about my views, but we can all agree that free speech, Christ, and America First should be the pillars of our movement.”

Israel supporters sour on him

At least one part of the Republican base seems deeply concerned about Vance’s answers, however, namely the pro-Israel camp.

Conservative firebrand Marina Medvin called Vance’s response to the Israel question at Ole Miss an “absolute dumpster fire.”

“Vance is saying that it required American Christians to pressure Israel into treating its native Christian population with decency. What an absolute joke,” Max Abrahms wrote.

Fuentes, however, saw the very nature of the questions Vance fielded as proof that his side of the infighting had largely won over the conservative youth.

“Questions at JD Vance’s TPUSA event:

• Is Trump controlled by Israel?

• Why are you fighting Thomas Massie?

• How is it America First to support Israel?

• Why did you marry a Hindu?

• Explain your connections to Palantir?

The Groypers have taken over. We run this,” he declared.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.