Vance says the Olympics are “one of the few things” that unite Americans

MILAN (AP) — Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Milan with his family Thursday, telling American athletes competing in the Milan-Cortina Winter Games that competition “is one of the few things that unites the entire country.”

It is Vance’s first stop on a journey that combines diplomacy and sports. He is leading President Donald Trump’s delegation to the 2026 Winter Olympics and later stops in Armenia and Azerbaijan to show support for the peace deal brokered by the White House last year.

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Vance, who plans to watch the USA women’s hockey team take on the Czech Republic in a preliminary game on Thursday, told the Athletes that the trip is a highlight of his time in office. “The entire country — Democrat, Republican, independent — we’re all rooting for you and rooting for you,” Vance said.

The week-long trip may be one of the few international trips Vance takes this year. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said last month that Trump and members of his Cabinet were focusing more on domestic issues — and domestic travel — ahead of the November midterm elections.

At the Games’ opening ceremony on Friday, the Vice President will lead a US delegation that includes his wife, Second Lady Osha Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and US Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta. The delegation will also include former Olympic gold medalists, including hockey-playing sisters Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando; Speed ​​skater Apolo Ono and figure skater Evan Lysacek.

Vance said his wife “is not a sports fan” but “makes us obsessively watch the Olympics” every two years, citing that as evidence of the way “competition really brings the country together. Everybody’s rooting for you guys and everybody’s cheering for you.”

Vance follows in the footsteps of former Vice Presidents Joe Biden, who attended the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, and Mike Pence, who traveled to Pyeongchang, Korea, in 2018. Former Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing because the Biden administration did not send any diplomatic officials as a boycott due to human rights concerns.

After the Olympics: Armenia and Azerbaijan

After Italy, Vance plans to head to Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Trump tasked him with building on an agreement aimed at ending four decades of conflict between the two countries.

The peace agreement strengthens the position of the United States in the region at a time when Russia’s influence is declining. Under the agreement, the two former Soviet republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan, agreed to reopen major transportation routes and enhance cooperation with the United States in the fields of energy, technology and economics. The deal also calls for the creation of a major transit corridor called the Trump Path to International Peace and Prosperity. It is expected to connect Azerbaijan with the autonomous region of Nakhchivan, which is separated by a 32-kilometre-wide swath of Armenian territory.

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Vance’s mission to advance peace efforts is similar to the one he undertook in October, when he traveled to Israel after weeks of negotiating a ceasefire in its war with Hamas in Gaza, affirming the Trump administration’s commitment to those efforts.

In addition to his stop in Israel last year, Vance has made trips to France, Germany, Greenland, India and the United Kingdom. He visited Italy twice, and met with Pope Francis before his death, and after that with his successor, Pope Leo XIV.

Sometimes vice presidents take the road less traveled

While presidents focus their foreign travel on meetings with some of America’s biggest allies, vice presidents are often called upon to take trips a little off the beaten path. Biden, for example, went to Mongolia in 2011, where he tried out some archery and got a horse. In 2017, Pence visited Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro, where he affirmed his support for NATO, as well as participating in symbolic diplomacy by planting an oak tree.

Mark Short, who was Pence’s chief of staff during Trump’s first term, said foreign trips for vice presidents are partly “a function of what the president likes to do — and what he doesn’t like to do.”

Sometimes, trips can include unexpected elements, such as Pence’s 2018 trip to the East Asia Summit in Singapore that included an informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Short also recalled a 2019 trip to Poland where Pence was called in to replace the president, who stayed home to monitor Hurricane Dorian. That trip included a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Obviously the reality is that the president has a lot of other responsibilities,” Short said. “So it’s often important that the United States is represented by the highest-ranking official available. And in many cases, that’s just the vice president.”