Vice President JD Vance visited North Carolina to promote economic gains, back a GOP Senate nominee, and address U.S. actions related to Iran and nationwide fraud investigations. He stood with allies from Republican circles and spoke bluntly about what his team sees as progress on housing, taxes, and interest rates while urging voters to support conservative leadership. Remarks ranged from economic snapshots to national security and a pledge to keep rooting out fraud that he says cost Americans billions.
Vance showed up at a local event with GOP leader Michael Whatley and SBA head Kelly Loeffler, keeping the message tight and pointed to conservative priorities. The crowd heard optimistic numbers and a call to stay focused on wins that Republican policies deliver. The visit doubled as both a policy update and a campaign moment aimed at shoring up support ahead of November.
“In just a very brief time, we’ve seen new home purchases rise to their highest level in five years,” Vance said. “Since the last time Donald Trump was president, we’ve seen the cost of rents drop for six months in a row.” He followed with a second point the crowd welcomed as proof that Republican economics are making a difference.
“We’ve seen the average tax refund that’s going to come to the people of North Carolina, about $3,700 per family,” Vance added. “And we see interest rates that are the lowest they’ve been since the last time that Donald J. Trump was president.” That framing was meant to tie current gains back to past Republican leadership and argue for continuing that approach.
Loeffler introduced Vance and used the platform to hammer waste and fraud while painting Democrats as out of touch with law-and-order concerns. “Together, we’re cleaning up massive, wasteful spending and the abuse of government programs,” she told the audience. “And you’ve seen that the fraud that sent your hard-earned tax dollars overseas and the Democrats open borders, defund the police agendas that invited violent crime into what should be safe communities, taking the lives of innocent victims like arenas.”
Vance addressed the Iran situation directly, stressing the core U.S. objective while avoiding operational specifics. He said the central concern is preventing Tehran from gaining nuclear weapons capability and framed U.S. engagement as necessary and focused. That rationale was delivered as a reminder that national security remains a top Republican priority.
“You all know that right now, we are engaged in a military operation to ensure, as the president has said repeatedly, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. “That is a simple, simple principle and standard. Frankly, every president. Has taken affirmative steps to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Pressed about advice he offered the president, Vance declined to go into classified details and made his point with blunt humor and seriousness. “I’m not going to show up here and in front of God and everybody else, tell you exactly what I said in that classified room, partially because I don’t want to go to prison, and partially because I think it’s important for the President of the United States to be able to talk to his advisers without those advisers running their mouth to the American media,” Vance explained. The line underscored a commitment to executive confidentiality and disciplined counsel.
On the campaign trail for Whatley, Vance did not hold back in contrasting his ally with Democratic rival Roy Cooper and urging voters to back a Republican alternative. “Roy Cooper is one of these people who clearly cares way more for foreign countries than he does the United States of America,” Vance said. “You see the passion in his voice when he talks about protecting illegal aliens. You’ll never hear that passion when he’s talking about the people in this room.”
“You hear the passion in his voice when he talks about sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the war in Ukraine,” the vice president added. Those lines were aimed at painting Cooper as aligned with big-spending, globalist priorities instead of local safety and fiscal restraint.
A spokesperson for Cooper pushed back hard, defending the former governor’s record and attacking Whatley on funding and law enforcement cuts. “Roy Cooper is the only candidate who spent his career prosecuting violent criminals and keeping thousands of them behind bars as attorney general, and signing tough on crime laws and stricter pretrial release bail policy as governor,” the spokesperson said. “DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley is desperate to distract from his support for hundreds of millions in cuts to local law enforcement and public safety efforts that keep North Carolinians safe.”
Vance closed by highlighting a multi-state fraud task force tied to the Justice Department and state partners, promising continued scrutiny of widespread abuse. “We know there’s a lot of fraud in California, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of exactly what it looks like and what we’ve done in the Trump administration,” Vance said. “And the president has really empowered us to do this, is to take the first national look at the way the American people have been defrauded over many, many years.”
The vice president also cited a staggering figure tied to past abuses, saying there was “at least” $19 billion in fraud uncovered in Minneapolis and the surrounding area under prior reviews. That number was used to argue for a sustained, national effort to recover funds and tighten oversight going forward.
