Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Wacky vice presidents are a long Republican tradition
JD Vance’s bitterly misjudged ‘childless cat ladies’ broadside broke the internet — but lightweight, bizarre or even downright dangerous vice-presidential picks are the norm for Republicans, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance takes the stage with his wife Usha Vance during a rally in his home town of Middletown, Ohio, July 22, 2024

THERE should not have been quite as much surprise over presidential contender Donald Trump’s pick of JD Vance as his vice-presidential running mate. After all, the Republican Party has a pretty solid track record of selecting lightweights with bizarre views or quirky traits for the second-fiddle role.

Richard Nixon’s vice-president was Spiro Agnew, who metaphorically put his foot in his mouth so many times with a succession of verbal gaffes that he became better known as the butt of jokes, including one that suggested: “The only time Agnew opens his mouth is to change shoes.”

Early into Nixon’s second term, Agnew was forced to resign after being charged with accepting bribes and falsifying federal tax returns.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Dick Cheney in Iraq
US Politics / 7 November 2025
7 November 2025

ANDREW MURRAY looks back on the ignominious career of the former US vice-president, who died earlier this week

President Donald Trump holds an artist rendering of interior of the new White House ballroom as meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Washington
United States / 27 October 2025
27 October 2025

Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

US vice president JD Vance, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy welcomes him to Chevening House in Kent, during his visit to Britain, August 8, 2025
Far Right / 13 August 2025
13 August 2025
Us President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his limou
Features / 1 April 2025
1 April 2025
Bizarrely, Trump’s latest attacks now include the National Zoo, but his real and racist agenda is to strip everything black from the country’s cultural institutions, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER