In a legislative cliffhanger that had Capitol Hill glued to its screens, the US Senate delivered high drama on July 1. After an 18-hour vote-a-rama, US President Donald Trump’s sweeping “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a 940-page legislative colossus featuring vast tax cuts and spending reductions, scraped through by the thinnest of margins.As reported by the Associated Press, the final tally was 50–50. The deadlock was broken by Vice President JD Vance’s decisive “yay” vote.Yes — that JD Vance.The man who, as Reuters noted in November 2024, once publicly branded Trump “reprehensible” and “an idiot,” and privately compared him to Adolf Hitler, has been a key ally for Trump.JD Vance, now the 50th Vice President of the United States, stands as arguably the most pivotal figure in pushing Trump’s legislative priorities across the finish line.Live Events“The big not-so-beautiful bill has passed,” Senator Rand Paul quipped after the vote, according to the Associated Press, still reeling from the overnight showdown. Paul, along with fellow Republicans Thom Tillis (North Carolina) and Susan Collins (Maine), joined all Democrats in opposing the bill.Also Read: Three Republican senators defy Trump, vote against his ambitious ‘big, beautiful bill’: Who are they?Inside Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’The Senate’s version of the bill makes substantial changes to tax and spending policy. According to the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis:It includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, largely aimed at making Trump’s 2017 tax rates permanent, which are otherwise set to expire by year-end.It introduces new breaks, including eliminating taxes on tips, a key Trump campaign promise.It proposes rolling back billions in green energy tax credits, a move that Democrats warn will gut the renewable energy sector and stall investments in wind and solar nationwide.It mandates $1.2 trillion in spending reductions, tightening access to Medicaid and food stamps. Work requirements for able-bodied adults, including some parents and older Americans, would be introduced. Changes in how the federal government reimburses states could limit access to safety-net programmes.As per the CBO, these changes could leave an estimated 11.8 million more Americans uninsured by 2034 and raise the federal deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade.Additionally, the bill allocates $350 billion for border and national security, including deportation initiatives, partially funded by new fees levied on immigrants, as outlined by the Associated Press.The House is expected to clash with the Senate over changes to Medicaid. Speaker Mike Johnson has already warned the Senate not to stray too far from the version his chamber previously passed, but the clock is ticking to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline.Also Read: Big Beautiful Bill: After narrow Senate passage, Trump’s marquee bill faces resistance in the HouseOne tie. One guy. One big shift.That this bill passed at all is due, in no small part, to JD Vance.His journey from Trump antagonist to vice-presidential loyalist is one of the most remarkable transformations in recent political memory.According to CNN, during the 2016 election cycle, Vance texted a former Yale Law School roommate saying that he went back and forth between thinking Trump was a cynical figure like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad and might even prove useful, or that he was America’s Hitler.He called Trump a “total fraud” in public and even likened his influence on America to “cultural heroin,” according to Time Magazine.Yet, by 2024, that same JD Vance was tapped to be Trump’s running mate. As Reuters reported at the time, his selection reflected a full-circle moment, from vocal critic to loyalist lieutenant.Hillbilly to high officeBorn into an impoverished household in southern Ohio, Vance’s backstory has always been central to his political narrative. Sky News noted how he often speaks about his upbringing in speeches to connect with blue-collar voters.His mother, according to The Times of India, struggled with opioid addiction, which escalated to heroin use, a personal trauma that shaped much of his public identity.That upbringing was the subject of his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. The book topped The New York Times bestseller list and made Vance a breakout star, a voice for white working-class voters and Appalachian communities. As Times Now wrote in November 2024, Hillbilly Elegy “evolved into a cultural phenomenon” that catapulted Vance into the political spotlight.As Reuters noted, Vance’s Rust Belt roots, in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, made him a key figure in winning over working-class white voters, especially those without college degrees, a core MAGA demographic.The MAGA makeoverDespite Vance’s once-vocal criticisms, his shift wasn’t sudden. In a New York Times interview (June 2025), he said there was no “Eureka” moment, but rather a slow realisation that he had misunderstood Trump.“I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration,” Vance told the Times. By the time he launched his Senate bid in 2022, Vance was publicly downplaying the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and aligning with Trump’s unfounded claims of a stolen election. That shift helped him win Trump’s endorsement, and the Senate seat.Building Trumpworld credVance’s rise in Trump’s political orbit coincided with growing ties to Donald Trump Jr., according to Reuters. Trump reportedly admired Vance’s 2022 stance against U.S. aid to Ukraine, a view that aligned with MAGA isolationism.At the same time, he increasingly aligned himself with Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud in 2020. Vance repeatedly stated that the election had “serious problems,” carefully stopping short of directly saying Trump had won but leaving little doubt about where his sympathies lay.“If I had been vice president, I would not have certified the results,” he told supporters, adding that he would have “asked the states to send alternate electors,” as reported by Al Jazeera and The Times of India in October 2024.Vance also became instrumental in donor outreach. As Reuters revealed, he played a key role in organising a Bay Area fundraiser in June 2024 with venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, a crucial event for Trump’s Silicon Valley fundraising.His early endorsement of Trump in January 2023, before any other potential vice-presidential contenders had stepped up, signalled full alignment.The cat-lady theorist grows upAs Reuters reported, Vance’s early public appearances were rocky. He drew backlash for controversial remarks, including calling childless women “cat ladies” in 2021 and promoting a conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Ohio, a claim Trump would later repeat during a debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.But Vance eventually displayed more polish. In a televised 2024 debate with Democrat Tim Walz, he adopted a measured tone and demonstrated more discipline than even Trump at times. “Turned out to be a good choice,” Trump said afterward, as quoted by Reuters.Ride-or-die RepublicanismAs a sitting vice president, Vance has continued to echo Trump’s key positions:He has vigorously defended Trump’s tariff policies. In April 2025, on Fox & Friends, he praised the administration’s 50% tariffs on the EU, saying “we needed a big change.” His support was also reported by Sky News and The Wall Street Journal.He has publicly declared that, had he been vice president in 2020, he “would not have certified the results,” according to Al Jazeera and The Times of India (October 2024).According to the White House’s “Trump–Vance Administration Priorities” document, Vance backs strong immigration restrictions, including ending asylum access for illegal border crossers, reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and using the military for border security. He also supports designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations.In 2021, as reported by Time Magazine, Vance reportedly advised Trump to fire civil servants and replace them with loyal MAGA ideologues, laying the groundwork for what has become a defining goal of Project 2025.The abortion pivot and the X-factor feudVance’s stance on abortion has also evolved.As per PolitiFact and Democrats.org, in 2021 he suggested that even rape and incest victims should carry pregnancies to term, stating, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”But by 2025, he had embraced a softer tone. America Magazine had earlier this year reported that Vance now supports access to the abortion pill mifepristone. This matches Trump’s courtroom defence of the drug, despite pressure from anti-abortion conservatives. However, this position exists alongside Project 2025, a conservative blueprint that could still restrict mifepristone via administrative regulation, as per ReproductiveFreedomforAll.org.Then came the Elon Musk feud. In June 2025, Musk attacked Trump’s economic bill on X, calling it a “disgusting abomination,” and made a now-deleted claim that Trump appeared in the Epstein files, as reported by The Times of India.While many initially described Vance’s response as a “calculated silence,” he later sided publicly with Trump. “President Trump has done more than any person in my lifetime to earn the trust of the movement he leads. I’m proud to stand beside him,” he posted on X, according to TOI.On Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, Hindustan Times reported, Vance called Musk’s actions “a huge mistake,” but expressed hope that the Tesla CEO would “come back into the fold.”Echo. Not voice?Vance’s journey from Hillbilly Elegy to the Senate floor has drawn admiration, cynicism, and accusations of opportunism.“What you see is some really profound opportunism,” said David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati and former speechwriter for two Democratic governors, in comments to Reuters. Still, the result is undeniable: Vance is now one of the most powerful voices in Republican politics. Or, as Niven put it, not a voice, but “an echo to Trump.”
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