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Vice President JD Vance looked mesmerized as he set foot inside the Oval Office for the first time on Tuesday, according to footage captured by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who called it a stunning testament to the American Dream.
An excited Johnson (R-La.) recorded Vance’s first-ever entrance into the president’s formal workspace during their meeting Tuesday.
“Wow, this is pretty crazy, wow,” Vance, 40, said, almost speechless after following President Trump into the Oval Office and marveling at the famous West Wing room.
“I’ve never been inside this room. This is incredible.”
Johnson, 52, had been there for a meeting with Trump, 78, Vance and other Republican leaders to hash out plans to wrangle the GOP’s key agenda items through Congress.
The speaker took note of Vance’s humble upbringing and hailed the feat as emblematic of America’s opportunities.
“As we gathered for our meeting at the White House yesterday, JD Vance mentioned to us that he had never before visited the Oval Office. I told him and President Trump that I HAD to capture the moment on video,” Johnson explained in an X post.
“Only in America can a hardworking young man from Appalachia rise from his humble circumstances to enter the Oval for first time as VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. What a country!”
During his upbringing in Appalachia, Vance had been surrounded by poverty and his mother was mired in addiction struggles. Eventually, he made his way to Yale University.
The Ohio native was catapulted into the national limelight after the publication of his 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which referenced his difficult coming of age in Middletown, Ohio. Eventually that book was turned into a 2020 movie directed by Ron Howard.
Trump endorsed Vance in the bruising 2022 Ohio Senate primary, helping him eke out the win. And then over the summer, Trump plucked the freshman senator to serve as his VP.
His mother, Beverly Aikins, spoke at the Ohio inaugural ball on Sunday and informed attendees that she had just achieved 10 years of sobriety after abusing pain killers and becoming addicted to heroin, per Cincinnati.com.
“We live in a great country,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday about the “moving” moment. “Everybody feels this. Everybody feels the excitement of the moment. The excitement of being in a great country. The atmosphere in Washington has changed.”
Vance had never visited the Oval Office during the Biden administration. The clip shared by Johnson only lasted about 28 seconds.
After Tuesday’s strategy session, Johnson told reporters that Republicans have “a plan pretty well formulated now.”
“The party is working in unison.”
English (US)