America’s Vice President Tells a Sparse Arena to ‘Take the Country Back’

In the 15 months since Trump entered the White House for the second time, each day has felt more and more like we’re being operated on while wide awake, but we can’t do anything about it because Republicans have a trifecta, Democrats are playing patty cakes, and ICE might kill us or disappear us into one of its camps if we flinch the wrong way. We’re basically three Trump Truth Social crashouts away from it being illegal to live in this country without the permission of a white male MAGA Christian.

So when Vice President JD Vance told an (embarrassingly) small group of students that they need to “get more involved” because “that’s how we take our country back,” I was confused! Who the fuck are you taking it back from? The endangered Rice’s whales?

Vance’s tour de failure continued Tuesday night at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia. Erika Kirk was also supposed to be there, but she backed out at the last minute, claiming she’d received serious threats. “But after all our family has been through, I take my security team’s recommendations extremely seriously,” she tweeted. Maybe true. But it also may be true that she was embarrassed by the seemingly terrible ticket sales—which were free. 

Vance spoke to a mostly-empty Atkins Ford Arena, which is estimated to have been less than 25% filled. We’re not saying Candace Owens is a reputable source, but her messy response to Kirk’s tweet did, I’m sorry, make me giggle: “Stop. This is exhausting. You pulled out because of bad ticket sales…Were there actually a viable threat, the Vice President would not have continued the event.” Points were made, that’s all I’m saying.

So without Erika, there was less preaching about women needing to stay home and reproduce, but Vance still said enough stupid things for the both of them—beginning with his declaration that the country needs saving from some unseen force. 

“Naturally, we have to ask about what is going on in Iran,” Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point USA spokesperson, asked, before praising Vance for flying back to the U.S. from Europe, as if he were one of the Artemis astronauts. “So, do you know what time zone you are and how many hours of sleep did you get?” 

He rambled for a few moments before saying that people have two choices when they don’t like what politicians are doing: ignore them or don’t. “I have recognized that a lot of young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East,” he said. “What I am saying is, do not disengage because you disagree with the administration on one topic. Get more involved, make your voice heard even more. That is how we ultimately take the country back.” Then he talked about Trump’s voter suppression SAVE America Act. You might have forgotten by this point, but that question was about the war in Iran. 

He eventually said that “in Pakistan, we made a ton of progress,” which is not true, because after 21 hours, Vance walked away from negotiations with nothing and very definitely made everything worse. He ultimately said Trump is trying to make a “grand bargain.” Sure. 

Vance: I recognize that a lot of young voters don’t love the policy that we have on the Middle East… Don’t get disengage because you disagree with the admin on one topic. Get more involved. That’s how we take the country back. pic.twitter.com/e5xtRkqO2k

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 14, 2026

Some other hits from the night were when Vance claimed Trump and Epstein weren’t besties, when he dropped a pull yourself up by your bootstraps-esque answer to a student asking what he’d say to someone who says “the only way to succeed in this country is to come from a generationally wealthy family,” and hilariously said that Pope Leo needs to be careful when talking about religion. God has the opportunity to do the funniest thing here.

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