For the American Vice President J. D. Vance, this summer's itinerary seems more like a chapter from a luxury novel than a political work trip. From diplomatic meetings in mansions surrounded by immaculate gardens to family breaks in green valleys, Vance's vacation in the United Kingdom has been far from ordinary. Especially considering that the number two of the United States' Head of State and Government arrived in the British Isles doing something rather unusual in diplomatic annals: insulting the country hosting him.
His visit began amid growing tensions between the US and the United Kingdom over Gaza, Ukraine, and trade policy. Vance, his wife Usha, and their three children landed in London and soon moved to Chevening House, the residence of Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Kent. There, more among fishing rods than podiums, they engaged in discussions on transatlantic relations. Although they caught nothing while fishing (their children had better luck), the meeting was notable not only for the unexpected camaraderie between the conservative Vice President and the progressive British minister but also for their common working-class origins and Christian faith. In fact, the combination of leisure and politics, friendly statements, and nods to populism make Vance's trip follow, perhaps unintentionally, the Benedictine maxim of ora et labora (pray and work). After all, the Vice President, who was once an atheist, converted to Catholicism upon entering politics with the solid spiritual argument that "the Catholic Church is ancient."
Vance was respectful of the British Government's decision to recognize Palestine, as he simply made it clear that he does not share that view and that the US will not do anything similar. He did not repeat to Lammy his famous statements from just a year ago when he said that with the arrival of the Labor Party - to which the British minister belongs - to power in London, the United Kingdom would become "the first Muslim country to have the atomic bomb" (aside from the absurdity of the statement, the then Vice Presidential candidate forgot that Pakistan, which is indeed Muslim, has had the bomb for four decades, with the help, precisely, of the US).
Nevertheless, the American Vice President warned the United Kingdom to avoid following the US down what he described as "a very dark path" of eroding freedom of speech, although he insisted that his criticisms were directed at the West in general, not just the UK. Vance was not referring to the demands for the Hollywood giant Paramount to fire the star of its television network, CBS, Stephen Colbert, a vocal critic of Trump, as a condition for approving its purchase by Skydance Studios, owned by David Ellison, whose father, Larry, is not only the second richest person in the world after Elon Musk but also a prominent financier of Donald Trump's campaigns. No, the issue was about the alleged silencing of conservative, Christian, and anti-abortion voices in Europe in general and in the UK in particular.
Now, Vance is in the Cotswolds region, about 150 kilometers west of London, where the American taxpayer has paid for him and his family to stay in a mansion that rents for £11,000 (about ¤12,700) per week, with a temporary helipad and strong security measures, a countryside retreat popular among elite tourists in the area. It is a striking contrast: Vance, who has cultivated an image of a person born in a poverty-stricken environment, a defender of the worker battered by globalization, immigration, and elites, has ended up going on vacation to the region where also reside the epitomes of hard work and family values like David and Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, Hugh Grant, the latter's ex-wife, Elizabeth Hurley, or Pink Floyd's drummer, Nick Mason.
As expected, the trip has sparked protests. Local groups - including environmentalists, unions, and Palestine sympathizers - have labeled the British hospitality towards Vance as hypocritical, and a few dozen protesters showed up near Chevening with banners and memes calling him a fascist.
The retreat in the Cotswolds comes after a spring of travels that has become somewhat of a personal trademark: after ski getaways, visits to Wyoming, and weekends at Disneyland, the Vice President is experiencing another chapter of what some call his VP on vacation profile. Particularly controversial has been Vance's security service's decision to open the floodgates of a dam on the Ohio River so that there would be enough water for the Vice President and his family to take a boat ride.
The next stop will be Scotland. Vance and his family are expected to be in the Highlands from Wednesday to Sunday, following President Trump's recent golf and political visit to Aberdeenshire, which many criticized as a promotional campaign for his hospitality properties funded by taxpayers. As far as is known, Vance will not be staying at any of Trump's private clubs in the region, perhaps because he has not been offered them for free.
With his stay in the United Kingdom, Vance is easing tensions with that ally. Furthermore, he is projecting his image, something important for a political figure clearly aspiring to succeed Trump - if the latter does not decide to violate the US Constitution and run for a third term, as he has hinted at repeatedly. For the Starmer Government, it is another success in the tough task of becoming practically the only democracy that gets along with Trump on planet Earth. Amid the political and geopolitical whirlwind - the famine in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, and the Trump-Putin summit - Vance's image fishing with Lammy presents a leadership image of old-fashioned diplomacy that softens the rough edges of Trumpism.