Vice President JD Vance has two campaign stops on his Monday schedule — one to help elect fellow Republicans, the other to smooth over a mess of his own making with "nervous" important donors.
According to Politico Playbook, Vance heads first to a MAGA-hosted event in Metro Detroit, where he's expected to appear alongside 10th District congressional hopeful Mike Bouchard, U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Rep. John James, the Republican nominee for Michigan governor. The Michigan trip comes as trade tensions simmer between the Trump administration and neighboring Canada.
Then things get considerably tougher, according to Politico.
Vance is traveling to Las Vegas for a "closed-press speech" at the Republican Jewish Coalition's leadership summit — a "high-stakes" bid to repair his standing with pro-Israel donors who've grown wary of his rhetoric. Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), a vocal critic of Vance's posture toward Israel, warned it won't be smooth sailing.
"This will not be an easy crowd for him, and I think it's good that he's coming. He's said a lot of things that make folks like me and people in this room nervous. … Hopefully he'll address that," he told Politico.
The Las Vegas stop follows months of grumbling from Jewish Republican donors over Vance's skepticism toward continued U.S. involvement in Middle East conflicts.
In March, Axios reported that Vance's inner circle believed that higher-ups in Israel were waging a "smear campaign" against him due to his reluctance to support a war on Iran that has now dragged on for over six months with no end in sight.