Unconverted: Usha Vance, forced to share spotlight with Pak general, says she’s quite happy with her Hindu faith
The TOI correspondent from Washington: For a man who wrote a bestselling memoir titled Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, Vice President JD Vance may be losing his way with the MAGA base, one awkward relationship status update at a time.Vance first stirred MAGA faithful during his recent peace sortie in Switzerland by professing his love for Pakistan, a country still viewed with deep suspicion in America for its links to terrorism. Flanked by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, the US veep declared, “I have joked that I have two very, very important people in my life: An Indian and a Pakistani. The Indian is my wife, and the Pakistani is Field Marshal Munir.” Later, pressed by a Pakistani journalist about what he thought of its role in the US-Iran talks, he gushed, “I love Pakistan.”If his wife (pregnant with their fourth child) took any offense at being bracketed with a Pakistani general, she did not let it be known immediately. But in a MAGA movement raised on a diet of unilateral American sovereignty and bigotry, his affection for the Pakistani military apparatus did not go down smoothly.Republican Senator Rick Scott publicly grumbled that Pakistan (and Qatar) have a “long history of harboring terrorists and right now they seem far more invested in propping up Iran’s decades-long terror campaign than achieving a meaningful peace,” while Montana’s Tim Sheehy told Fox News viewers that the country spent a decade hiding Osama bin Laden and funded Ayatollah through ISI insurances,. Meanwhile, conservative talk-show host Meghan McCain declared, “JD Vance loves Pakistan. Well, I don’t,” while reminding listeners of Pakistan’s perfidy and the hunt for bin Laden. Vance’s Swiss lovefest with Pakistan caps off what has been a testing time for his domestic brand, increasingly viewed through the lens of the 2028 Presidential election. Just days earlier, the US veep was again under scrutiny, when Usha Vance told CBS News’s Robert Costa in a joint interview that she didn’t need to convert (to catholicism, as he has publicly hoped several times) because she grew up in a happy, stable household.“I grew up in a Hindu household that was very stable … I have not felt the same need to seek something different that he has,” Usha Vance asserted, later telling him, “Therapy didn’t work for you; church does.”Naturally, social media interpreted the remarks with the curiosity bomb inspectors reserved for the remnants of an unexploded missile. Within minutes, commentators had translated her remarks into: “I didn’t need to convert because my childhood wasn’t as chaotic as yours,” and “I’m quite comfortable in my faith, thank you.” While Vance supporters saw in the interview a thoughtful observation about different life experiences, critics viewed it as a smackdown delivered with the politeness of a Yale-trained lawyer. Apparently, pulling her into a comparison with a Pakistani general is not the first time Vance has embarrassed his wife.In his new memoir, he discusses a significant romantic relationship he had with a woman named Mary before he met Usha. Then there was this remark during an event in Michigan in March: “Usha is now 22 weeks pregnant with baby number four. When we decided to run for vice president, she said you can become VP or have a 4th baby. But ladies and gentlemen, I am persuasive, so I got both,” Vance told the crowd, with Usha sitting in the audience.The episodes have revived a longstanding curiosity surrounding what is currently America’s most famous interfaith marriage. JD Vance has openly discussed his Catholic faith and his hope that his family shares it. Usha Vance, meanwhile, has remained proudly connected to her Hindu upbringing. To many observers, the striking thing in the interview was not disagreement between the couple but her confidence. While Washington is accustomed to political spouses nodding supportively, Usha Vance increasingly appears comfortable presenting herself as an independent figure with her own views, traditions and identity. In a capital where entire careers are built on saying nothing memorable, that may have been the most effective political communication of the week.
