‘Vance is the future of MAGA’, says close friend

We spoke to University of Cambridge academic Dr James Orr, a close friend and confidante of JD Vance, who has been described as his ‘intellectual mentor’.

James Orr: Many of the Ivy League universities are simply not reflecting the very real differences that are tearing America apart. And one of the primary public functions of university in my view is to inform an electorate and to model good disagreement on issues that reasonable Americans, reasonable citizens, disagree violently about – especially in a polarised culture. So all that the US can do effectively is say, look, we expect federal subsidy from American taxpayers to be spent in a way that reflects the public good and does not privilege an ideologically captured client-class of American academics.

Matt Frei: But this is about, you’ve said it yourself, it’s about the freedom to learn, which is also the freedom to research. These institutions would say that even though they have huge amounts of money from the private sector, the kind of money they need in order to do the kind of research that has made American universities great, that has made America great – into the sciences, into medicine – that relies on federal funding. And when that federal funding is cut because they refuse to do certain things that the government asks them to do, that’s bad news for America at the end of the day, isn’t it?

James Orr: I think these are very blunt tools, but they are maybe the only tools available to an administration that wants to restore American universities to where they were. If I were an American, I would want to see universities flourish, and in particular I would want to see universities reflect the very real debates that are happening off Harvard Square in main street America. And as we know, American politics is getting more and more polarised on a whole range of issues.

Matt Frei: Because one thing that really strikes me, especially about him, he is smart, but he’s also angry. But I’m talking about civility, or rather the lack of civility in something like dealing with President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. He’s defended his nation from Russian aggression, and here’s JD Vance, basically assaulting him in the Oval Office.

James Orr: I will simply say that in the six or seven years I’ve known him, I have never known him lose his temper once. He’s personally very equable.

Matt Frei: But he did then.

James Orr: Well look, we all lose our temper – very easy to lose one’s temper.

Matt Frei: But particularly in the Oval Office? Choose your moment.

James Orr: You’re probably right that it was unwise for a proper and important, trilateral conversation or bilateral conversation between Ukraine – between Zelenskyy and Trump, Vance – to be conducted in the Oval Office. And you could see throughout the conversation that Zelenskyy was pushing, as you would expect him to. He’s pushing for his country – he is a national conservative too. He was pushing for his nation’s interests. Nothing wrong with that. But he went into the conversation, I think he was badly briefed.

Matt Frei: This was a key moment though wasn’t it. Your friend didn’t come out of it, in the minds of many people around the world, looking any better.

James Orr: It was a key moment.

Matt Frei: What would you tell Vance down the phone if he rang you up and asked you about that? Would you say, JD, you went too far? Or would you say – fantastic!

James Orr: No, in fact, no I certainly wouldn’t. It was not my place to tell him how to conduct himself.

Matt Frei: You’re a friend of his.

James Orr: I’m a friend of his, and it is the duty of friends to be critical when necessary. He is also the Vice President of the United States.

James Orr: But he’s also quite mean, isn’t he? I mean, the stuff he said in Greenland about the Danes was just mean. It was impolitic. It was uncivil. The stuff that he said to the Europeans at Munich, that’s mean.

James Orr: Right the question is, to what extent have they been good friends and allies? And I think the remarks in Greenland were look..

Matt Frei: Oh come on.

James Orr: Has Denmark really been doing everything that it can to take seriously…

Matt Frei: The Greenlanders, all 57,000 of them, who, by the way, don’t want to become America’s 51st state in case Canada should decline that offer.

James Orr: And Vance was very clear that – that is a matter for the Greenlanders. He was very clear in those pronouncements at the press conference.

Matt Frei: Do you see JD Vance as the future president of the United States?

James Orr: Yes, I do.

Matt Frei: You do. You think you’ll be elected in the next election.

James Orr: My sense is he is dead set to be a Republican candidate. I think what Team Trump recognised was that Vance is the future of MAGA, that if we want Trumpism to persist beyond Trump, then he’s our man.

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