Vice President JD Vance described President Donald Trump’s foreign policy as focused on leveraging America’s prodigious economic power to pursue peace around the world, replacing war manufacturing with cultural exchange, in a conversation on Thursday with Breitbart News’ Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
Vance joined Breitbart News on Thursday for a wide-ranging policy conversation in Washington, DC, the latest in a series of Breitbart News discussions with leading American political figures in the nation’s capital.
The event was held in partnership with CGCN and the ALFA Institute.
Asked by Boyle to discuss the significant shift in foreign and economic policy from previous Republican administrations to the current one, Vice President Vance highlighted President Trump’s insistence on fair trade over free trade, advancing national interests over global ones, and the pursuit of peace through economic leverage.
“His attitude is he wants to get the best deal possible for the American people,” the vice president said of President Trump, “and, for too long, we had trade negotiators that so believed in the fake idea of free trade over fair trade that they were willing to sell American workers down the river without actually negotiating in the interests of American workers.”
Beyond explicitly economic negotiations, Vice President Vance described a shift in White House thinking to use trade negotiations and economic potential in discussions about war and peace – in contrast to prior administrations that considered war and trade two distinct issues.
“We’ve been able to use the incredible economic leverage of the United States of America. We’re 25 percent, probably a little more than that, of the world GDP. Why don’t we ever use our economic leverage to achieve peace?” he asked. “Because when countries aren’t fighting each other, when they’re actually using their economic talents to manufacture good things rather than weapons to kill each other, then that actually creates incredible economic opportunities for Americans – and that’s why the president is so fundamentally focused on peace.”
The vice president noted that the second Trump administration has brokered eight peace agreements since coming into office in January, suggesting that if Trump resolves two other global conflicts, he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he was nominated extensively this year. The winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was Venezuelan anti-socialist former lawmaker and activist María Corina Machado, who dedicated her award to Trump.
Vice President Vance described the president as, at his core, a “humanitarian” and a “tough guy, but not a violent human.”
“Why don’t you stop killing each other and start trading with one another? Why rather than Russia and Ukraine killing one another, why don’t they actually engage in some commerce with one another?” Vice President Vance asked, describing the president’s thinking. “Travel between the two countries, engage in some sort of cultural exchange.”
“That is his fundamental perspective that he takes into these things and, fundamentally, if we get more peace in the world, it’s good for American workers, its good for the American people, and the president is going to continue pursuing peace,” he concluded.
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