JD Vance’s Own Relative — Who Fought in Ukraine — Rips VP and Trump as ‘Putin’s Useful Idiots’ amid White House Freezes Aid

Vice President JD Vance’s first cousin Nate Vance branded him and President Donald Trump as “useful idiots” to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the administration halts military aid to Ukraine.

Nate Vance, who reportedly spent three years fighting against Russia’s invasion in Ukraine as part of the “Da Vinci Wolves” battalion, ripped into the vice president in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro over his heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during last month’s Oval Office meeting.

During the meeting, JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president for being “disrespectful” and ungrateful for U.S. aid in front of TV cameras.

Nate Vance praised his cousin as a “good guy” and “intelligent” but said that the vice president was playing politics.

“When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that it was because he had to please a certain electorate, that it was the game of politics,” Nate Vance told Le Figuro. “But what they did to Zelensky was an ambush of absolute bad faith.”

He continued: “Donald Trump and my cousin clearly believe they can placate Vladimir Putin. They are wrong. The Russians are not about to forget our support for Ukraine. We are Vladimir Putin’s useful idiots.”

The Ukraine veteran reflected that the Oval Office showdown was personal: “I was disappointed. When JD justifies his distrust of Zelensky by the ‘reports’ he has seen, I thought I was going to choke.”

“His own cousin was on the front lines,” he continued. “I could have told him the truth, without pretense, without personal interest. He never tried to find out more.”

Nate Vance said he left messages with his cousin’s office but never got a response.

He returned to the U.S. in January, shortly before JD Vance took office, saying he couldn’t risk being captured.