J.D. Vance’s summer plans in the ‘Hamptons of England’

Where does a good America First hillbilly like to spend his summer? Cockburn would not have thought the answer was the Cotswolds — that glossy patch of the English countryside where limey aristos and media darlings drink overpriced rose with plutocratic American slebs.

And yet your correspondent hears from almost impeccable sources that Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha are looking for properties to rent in the area. Vance is supposedly making enquiries for a country pad, possibly ahead of Trump’s state visit to the UK. One Oxfordshire property was unable to help because it is playing host to a literary festival at around the same time. But another filthy rich Anglo is said to be considering offering his own home to the Second Family.

Apparently, some senior British political figures with deep knowledge of Cotswolds social scene are helping the Vances plan their trip. What would Mamaw say?

The veep’s interest in what one US Cotswold’s resident calls “the Hamptons of England” is just the latest step on Vance’s astronomical ascent through the social classes — from redneck Ohio to Yale to Peter Thiel’s VC fund to the US Senate and the Naval Observatory. The VP makes for an unlikely anglophile. He proudly donned shamrock socks on St. Patrick’s Day, and last year he joked Britain was the “first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon.” Let’s hope the mullahs of Westminster keep their hands off the red button while the Vances enjoy hanging out on the estate of a well-known billionaire.

A Vance stay will doubtless horrify the many American Cotswoldians – such as Ellen DeGeneres – who fled across the Atlantic after Trump’s reelection. You can run from MAGA, but you can’t hide…