After Donald Trump won the 2024 election, JD Vance and his close advisers came up with a guiding principle for his vice presidency and new, unofficial role as heir apparent to the Make America Great Again movement.

There would be no specific policy portfolio, according to three people with knowledge of the informal strategy sessions that took place during the transition, details of which have not previously been reported.

Kamala Harris’ tenure as vice president was viewed by Vance’s team as a cautionary tale. Joe Biden had tasked Harris with tackling the “root causes” of migration to the United States, among other goals, and the immigration assignment in particular backfired. Republicans dubbed Harris the “border czar” and Trump used the fight over immigration during the Biden years to a

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