JD Vance | All-In Summit 2024

Sacks introduces Vance as a pairing of contradictions: a Marine who served in the Middle East and later concluded the Iraq War was a mistake, and a former venture capitalist from poor, non-privileged Appalachia.

Vance links the poverty he saw growing up to an economy "less innovative than we pretend that it is." He says real innovation has come from software, while stagnation sits in heavily regulated sectors where, by his figures, 90% of the people he represents in the Senate work. He wants innovation broadened to transportation, logistics and energy.

His argument is that slow growth makes the country zero-sum: at 4% to 6% growth both parties get some of what they want, while at 0% to 1% politics becomes "much, much, much more insane." No data is offered in the conversation.

Vance rejects the media framing that Biden and Trump are both clearly declining, saying Trump remembers exactly what Vance said about him nine and a half years ago. He gives two reasons for changing course. First, he says much of what the press says about Trump is fabrication, citing the claim that Trump called white supremacists "very fine people" after Charlottesville.