JD Vance's appearance at the All In I've never seen him as relaxed as he was at the Summit, but he was also with the people he understands best: other VCs.
The All In The podcast appearance was what business leaders call a demonstration of synergy. The political fortunes of co-host David Sacks and Vance are closely intertwined – if Trump wins, Sacks looks like a kingmaker and has a vice president who owes him favors and takes his calls. If Vance loses, he stays close to his real Community – venture capitalists – provides him with a valuable network that he can use for future campaigns.
“Donald Trump cares more about the details of public policy than almost any other public figure I have ever met.”
Vance has called Sacks “one of my closest confidants.” (His other friends include Curtis Yarvin, an anti-democratic software developer, and VC Peter Thiel, who we'll learn more about later.) Sacks has expanded his influence in the Republican Party, first with his failed attempt to crown Ron DeSantis as the Republican nominee, and now with Vance. In addition to his fundraising activities, Sacks' All In Donald Trump was also a guest on the podcast and here Sacks regularly rails against his views on politics.
As far as I can tell, the purpose of Vance’s appearance on All In, co-hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, another Trump supporter and Silicon Valley SPAC king, was intended to explain the anti-immigration sentiment within the Republican Party.
Vance's performance was almost entirely disingenuous. According to Vance, everything bad that has been heard about former President Donald Trump is because the lousy people in the American media have been busy spreading lies about him. “The media doesn't often tell you the truth about Donald Trump,” Vance says. “Donald Trump is more interested in the details of public policy than almost anyone I've met in public life.” If you don't believe him, Vance says, “I just encourage you to listen to what he actually says.”
Yes, let's. On the same day the video of the All In When the interview was uploaded to YouTube, Trump was debating with Vice President Kamala Harris. When asked why he opposed immigration legislation, Trump said the following: “First, let me address the rallies. She said people would start walking away. People are not going to her rallies, there's no reason for that.” He went on to talk about having held “the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” OK, but maybe I'm cherry-picking! Let's try another one. When asked if he had a plan to repeal Obamacare, Trump replied, “I have concepts for a plan.”
Thiel described himself as “pro-Trump, pro-JD”
So much for Trump's understanding of public policy. As much as I enjoy quoting Trump, I'm less interested in mocking Vance's performance and more interested in what he does All In first of all.
Vance has portrayed himself as a man of the people, but he owes his place on Trump's ticket to Silicon Valley billionaires. After all, he is a favorite of Thiel, who gave $15 million to Vance's Senate campaign in Ohio. (There were other wealthy donors, too, including Oculus founder Palmer Luckey.) Thiel said he would sit out that race, but Vance has publicly stated he is trying to “bring Thiel off the sidelines” and get him to donate to Trump's campaign. (In his own All In During his appearance, Thiel described himself as “pro-Trump, pro-JD” and said that while he does not donate money to her, he “supports her in every other way possible.”)
In Thiel's absence, fellow PayPal mafioso Sacks has been aggressively intervening in politics. Sacks hosted a dinner at his mansion in July that raised $300,000 per person for Donald Trump's tech donations. Those in attendance wanted Vance as vice president, and he got him.
If you're wondering why Sacks, who is already rich, would seek even more wealth and power, consider that venture capitalists are middlemen. They need to raise money for their funds on a regular basis, and that's easier when they appear competent, impressive, and well-connected. Sacks has hosted both the Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates on his show, and he's quite familiar with Vance. Those kinds of political connections could make raising money easier, or connect him with better founders. Even if Trump and Vance lose, he's still made a powerful statement.
Immigration stop is the core of Trump's election campaign
This is the “connections” side of the equation – but Vance’s real job was the “knowledge” part. All In plays on people who consider themselves tech intelligentsia. They want one of them to reassure them that Trump, despite his penchant for spouting nonsense about immigrants eating pets, is a reasonable human being, just like them. Claiming that the media is unfairly biased against Trump is the kind of claim that plays well in these spaces, where people already believe in unfair media bias against tech CEOs.
More specifically, the real reason for Vance's appearance comes about halfway through the podcast, when he started talking about immigration.
Silicon Valley is full of immigrants, from the top (the current CEOs of Google, Microsoft, Adobe and IBM) to the bottom. Immigration is a critical issue for this group of people. When VC Marc Andreessen endorsed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016, he said, “The Valley wouldn't be here, we wouldn't be doing any of this, if we didn't have the incredible influx of immigrants that we've had over the last 80 years. And the idea of choking off that influx just makes me sick.”
Curbing immigration is a central plank of the Trump campaign, as evidenced by the “Mass Deportation Now” signs held up during the Republican National Convention. In his previous term, Trump had targeted the H-1B program, the visas that bring many tech workers to the U.S. Andreessen seems to have calmed down about that, as he now supports Trump and said nothing about immigration on his own podcast when explaining his decision. Vance's job was to reassure anyone who might still be feeling uneasy.
Every immigrant should keep an eye on Trump's plans for mass deportations
Vance began by trying to sell Republicans' anti-immigration stance on anyone who fears it could have a negative impact on the economy. “In principle, I agree that we should allow some immigrants into the country,” he says. “We want them to be highly talented, highly qualified people. You don't want to allow large numbers of illegal immigrants into the country.”
According to Vance, his campaign is about letting the right immigrants in and keeping the wrong ones out. He reminded the crowd that he was talking to “the daughter of Legal immigrants to this country.” It’s just all the undocumented people who are ruining America, he says. And all these bad immigrants are being Democrats. No, seriously, here's what Vance said:
When someone like Chuck Schumer says, “You know, we're going to get a Democratic majority because we're going to have all these new immigrants and all these old Americans. Well, they're going to vote Republican, but we're going to replace them with a bunch of new people who are going to vote Democrat,” that's pretty sick.
Vance awkwardly tried to downplay the calls for deportations. “You try to take it one step at a time,” he says. “But the most important thing – and I think the focus on deportations is important because at some point we're going to deport people – but the most important thing is to stop the bleeding.”
Every immigrant should pay close attention to Trump's plans for mass deportations. Trump has said he wants to deport 15 to 20 million people; the logistics of doing so will be terrifying. People who are here legally could be inadvertently caught and detained or deported. It's extremely convenient for Vance to show up here and address an industry full of foreign workers and downplay the threat. There are shades of his mentor Thiel's famous 2016 comment: Take Trump seriously, but not literally.
Since these comments, of course, we have had a Trump presidency. And it suggests that Trump should be taken seriously And literally when he talks about curbing immigration. He has already done that!
And when Vance says on All In that he would not have certified the 2020 election—”I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates,” are his words, echoing earlier statements—I tend to take that both seriously and literally. Vance is friends with a monarchist; his mentor Thiel has written, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” His running mate has said, “Christians, go vote, just this once. You don't have to anymore!” Vance clearly believes in proximity to power. I'm not sure he believes in much else, including democracy. And that seems to suit his Silicon Valley buddies just fine.