Press Gaggle: JD Vance Speaks to Reporters Before Air Force Two Departure - August 31, 2026

Hey.

Hey.

Hello, sir.

Good morning, everybody. How you guys doing?

Pretty good.

Good.

Good. All right. Well, looking forward to today, we're gonna head to Michigan. First of all, we got a, a lot of big announcements on the anti-fraud task force. Particularly, we're gonna talk about the fact that we're finally cracking down on the fraud in commercial trucking and commercial truck driving. For too long, the Biden administration in particular, a- -- and states who are cooperating with the Biden administration were effectively allowing tens of thousands of fraudulent CDLs on the road.

This, of course, was undercutting American wages. We know that trucking is one of the best sources of employment for non-college educated men. So it was bad for people's jobs, but also made our streets and our highways a lot less safe. So we're cracking down on that in the Trump administration. The president gave us a very clear directive to do so. We're announcing some very tough measures in Michigan.

And then we're obviously gonna do a little bit of politics too. We have, uh, two great candidates in particular, Mike Rogers, who's running for Senate against Abdul El-Sayed. An amazing guy, Mike Rogers, an army veteran, a true patriot. And I think the guy's gonna make a great US senator. So a little bit on the anti-fraud stuff, cracking down on trucking fraud, also a little politics.

And I think you, are you guys going with us to Vegas afterwards?

If we have to.

We'll come along if you want. E --

Sorry. Uh, you're invited. Yeah, come along if you want to. But look, we're gonna have a good time talking to the Republican Jewish Coalition, their, their annual assembly there in Las Vegas. So it'll be a busy day, but I think a good day talking about what's good for the country and also how to keep it going.

Uh, can you give us any hints on how you're gonna crack down on the, the CDL situation?

We'll talk a little bit about it at the event today. I don't wanna get too ahead of my remarks publicly today. But look, it, it's fundamentally just actually taking it seriously, forcing some of these fraudulent CDLs off the road and actually going after the, the, the people who are giving fraudulent CDLs in the first place.

[Crosstalk]

-- the president tweeted, um, some AI-generated video of bombing of Kharg Island. Was that meant to be a warning or what was the messaging there? Why did the president tweet that?

Well, you know, like the president likes to, uh, switch it up on social media a little bit. Uh, he would be the first to say he doesn't make an- announcements about military actions on social media, but I think that he's sending a message to the Iranians. Look, we know that they continue to shoot at commercial shipping.

We continue to have a lot of, uh, tools at our disposal to prevent them from doing so, or at least cut down on them from doing so. And that's what the president is saying is, "Look, you guys are shooting at commercial shipping. You guys are behaving like a terrorist country. You've gotta stop or there are gonna be some consequences."

[Crosstalk]

O- -- on Venezuela, really quickly.

Yeah.

Um, the, with the deal for the 65 billion in reserve in Venezuelan oil, when will the US see the first barrels of oil from that deal?

I think importantly, we're actually already seeing significant increase in oil production out of Venezuela, which is one of the reasons why, despite a lot of people predicting that oil prices would go to $200 a barrel, they're obviously higher than they were a few months ago, but they're, they're sort of much more stable in part because of what we see coming out of Venezuela.

So look, I think that we are gonna see significant increase in production. The 65 billion barrel reserve is a big part of that, but I, I think it's, it's a mistake to say, "When will we see increased production?" because we're already seeing produced production already.

Are you concerned about global vulnerabilities because of continued operations in Iran, either because of munitions drawdowns or other resources devoted to the region?

Well, look, I think that we're in a position in the United States we're as strong as we have ever been, we're only gonna get stronger under the president's leadership. Uh, we certainly saw under the Biden administration that the military was under-invested in and under-resourced. We're fixing that every day.

So obviously, it's a concern of ours, but it's a concern of ours because of underinvestment in the military for a very long time. It's something the President of the United States has said about fixing.

On AI, President Trump today said that Americans should get on board with wanting more data centers. How does, how do you think that message goes over for the, ahead of the midterms where this is becoming kind of a touchpoint in some areas?

Sure. Well, what the President said about data centers is they're an important part of the AI economy. Wh- -- when people build them, they have to build the power plants along with the data centers. I think probably 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utility and higher electricity for the people on the ground.

So I think what these companies have to do is take advantage of some of the federal deregulatory efforts that we've undertaken. If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out. And if that is happening, I don't think the data centers are that controversial. It's when the utility bills get so much higher, that's when it's a real problem.

All right, guys, we'll see you on the other. Take care.

Thank you.