JD Vance's Subtle Digs At Usha & His Kids Prove There's Only Room For One Inflated Ego In The Family

Vice President JD Vance undeniably seemed salty and dejected after President Donald Trump pushed him aside for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Despite being President Trump's running mate, the vice president seems to have been sidelined since Trump took office. In reaction, he isn't afraid of belittling his wife and kids in desperate attempts to make himself feel better and seem more important.

On April 22, 2025, Vice President Vance delivered some remarks from the Rajasthan International Center in Jaipur, India, regarding the U.S. and India's mutual economic concerns. He took a moment to give a shoutout to his wife, second lady Usha Vance — who is Indian-American — before he got terribly far into his spiel. "She's a bit of a celebrity, it turns out, in India," he said, per the official White House website. "I think more so than her husband." On the exterior, it sounded like JD was toting his wife's celebrity status. We couldn't help but notice, however, that he immediately made the story about him and subtly lamented his lesser status in the same nation. However, he did so in a condescending fashion, which framed him as proudly comparing Usha's stardom to his self-perceived influence in the same region.

Vice President Vance also took jabs at his three kids, saying that they "mostly behaved" during his family's dinner with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We gave them [an] A-minus for behavior with the prime minister," he said. It's beyond us why he needed to bring up their slight misbehavior at the function other than to make himself look like a gold-star student by comparison.

Second lady Usha Vance's heightened reputation in India compared to her husband, Vice President JD Vance, shouldn't be surprising to the latter, considering he backed up DOGE staffer Marko Elez, who was given the boot for posts containing Indian-targeted hate speech. "I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in February 2025. "We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back." Given that track record, it's unsurprising that JD wouldn't be the most popular person on his visit to India, and making a point out of his wife's popularity felt strange and pointless. 

Although they imaginably live a privileged life as the children of a vice president, it's difficult to fault the Vance kids for any behavioral problems they had while meeting the Indian prime minister. Their oldest son, Ewan, was only seven years old as of April 2025; their middle child, Vivek, was five; and their youngest daughter, Mirabel, was only three at the time. We can't think of any kid within that age range who would consider a political dinner fun. Thus, pointing out that they weren't perfect angels at a stuffy political function was like saying the sky is blue. It was an especially unnecessary observation to make in such a public setting.