Slate Writer Rips Into Usha Vance For Having Another Baby

Vice President J.D. Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, due in late July.

Usha Vance announced the news Jan. 20, prompting one author to lose her mind. Slate staff writer Heather Schwedel begins her analysis of the pregnancy by referencing “rumors about J.D. Vance leaving his wife for Erika Kirk[.]” (RELATED: Usha Vance Is Pregnant With Fourth Child)

These rumors, as far as I can tell, are premised on little more than Kirk’s hand placement in a hug shared between Kirk and J.D. Vance last October. 

Schwedel then refers to “reports of a possible divorce on the horizon,” reports which, again, appear based on little more than wishful thinking on the part of malicious actors.

Usha Derangement Syndrome will be off the charts https://t.co/69s7MbPJ1B

— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) January 26, 2026

“In lieu of trading in his wife for a paler model, Vance has found another way to prove himself a good shepherd of the MAGA faithful … For all we know, there was never any trouble in their marriage, and the cognitive dissonance is pure projection. But it does make a kind of sick sense that if J.D. Vance can’t have a white wife standing next to him as he clearly looks toward the 2028 presidential election, the next best thing is a pregnant one.” 

I’m fairly certain J.D. Vance was aware of his wife’s ethnicity when he married her. I also fail to see what is “sick” about having another child with one’s spouse. (RELATED: Usha Vance, Ivanka Trump Ooze Class In Stunning Outfits)

Schwedel then speculates on Usha Vance’s inner life.

“I confess to feeling the tiniest twinge of sympathy for her about the timing of the announcement—January is early to announce a baby due in late July. Did she feel pushed to say something before people started to notice her body changing?”

He’s her *husband*. It’s like they genuinely cannot conceive of it. https://t.co/xbvbSjNJHy

— wanye (@xwanyex) January 26, 2026

Schwedel concludes, “But that’s all the ‘Poor Usha’ we should be indulging in, because it’s important to remember that she is a willing participant in all of this. While it’s tempting to wonder if anyone else in her law-school class has put their career on hold to have four kids, she chose to have all those kids, and to leave her career to support her husband, and to stay with that husband, no matter how increasingly awful he seems both as a force in society and as an individual partner to her. Usha is free to slap ‘I had this before J.D. went crazy’ stickers on her other kids. But if she could ever claim any kind of ignorance, that time is over. She has now seen exactly who her husband has become as vice president. And knowing everything she knows, she concluded that yes, she wanted to have another one of J.D. Vance’s babies.” 

“Deranged” is not a strong enough word to describe Schwedel’s screed. “Sad” also works.

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