When President Trump took the stage on inauguration night after a whirlwind of balls and parades, there were two women he wanted to spotlight.
The first, as expected, was the First Lady, who stood adoringly next to him in a bewitching black and white dress.
But it was his telling compliment on the second that revealed more about America’s future than many had realized at the time.
Trump turned to Vice President J.D. Vance and said comically about him, “The only one smarter (than him) is his wife.”
“I would have chosen her (as my VP), but somehow the line of succession didn’t work out that way.”
He was referring to Usha Chilukuri Vance, the modest but formidable force behind him.
Many say that Usha, who studied at Yale and Cambridge before embarking on a stellar career as a lawyer, is the secret reason for her husband’s meteoric rise.
Like her husband’s, Usha’s background is one of humble beginnings and hard work.
Usha Vance is the secret weapon and guiding voice that has contributed to her husband’s meteoric rise
Her parents emigrated from India to America in the 1970s and both work as professors.
They raised her in San Diego in a Hindu household where studying was top of the agenda.
It paid off: Usha went on to study at Yale Law, where she met JD.
In his book Hillbilly Elegy, he called her his “Yale spirit guide” and the “super smart daughter of two immigrants.”
Although he was the polished product of years in the Marines, Usha was a beautiful and inquisitive mind.
She was editor of the Yale Law Journal, editor-in-chief of the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, and the proud recipient of the Gales Scholarship, a brutally competitive program that requires applicants to demonstrate “outstanding intellectual ability.”
While she and JD quickly fell in love, she took a short break from Yale to study in England at the equally prestigious University of Cambridge.
Today, her old classmates watch with bleary eyes as she ascends to American greatness.

Usha Chilukuri’s 11th grade yearbook photo
Because at that time Usha was far from conservative.
“She generally fit into the Gates Cambridge community: scholarly, left-leaning, cosmopolitan, committed to making the world a better place,” a fellow Gates scholar recalled. The Telegraph.
‘I certainly don’t recall any indication that she held far-right political views or would tolerate anyone who did.
“Her current position is surprising to many in the Gates community with whom I have spoken about it.”
Another Cambridge student who overlapped her said she was incredibly proud of Vance, who had recently published his book Hillbilly Elegy.
‘She was very proud of him and wanted us to hear his story. I immediately read Hillbilly Elegy on her recommendation and was very struck by it,” they said.
After her brief studies in Cambridge, Usha returned to the US where she climbed the clerkship ladder, starting with District Judge Amul Thapar in Eastern Kentucky.
She went on to serve as Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court.

JD and Usha married shortly after graduating from Yale Law in 2014

Usha is praised for her modesty and clarity. She avoids the spotlight, but is always there for her husband

Usha holds the couple’s toddler daughter Mirabel during the inaugural parade at Capitol One Arena
She and Vance married in 2014 in Kentucky, a year after Yale Law School, and moved to San Francisco in 2015.
It was then that their political career took off. Vance started working for conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel at his investment firm Mithril Capital.
Usha was an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson, where she was a civil litigator for clients including Disney, and colleagues remembered her as a moderate.
The company was named “a top contender in the cool, woke category” by American Lawyer in 2019 and touts on its website its DEI credentials and its welcoming attitude toward “intersex, transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people ‘.
Liberal views steeped in her past include support for Hillary Clinton and climate change initiatives.
Usha was said to be shocked by the January 6 Capitol riot and also criticized Trump’s role in the riots.
Friends told The Washington Post that her support for the current president was shocking as she had watched the insurrection with horror and disgust.
Yet they also say that Usha generally appears moderate and apolitical and is more interested in the technical aspects of her work and studies.
Vance made a sharp turn in his beliefs in 2022 when he ran for Senate.

Vance at Mar-a-Lago with the couple’s two children. He is tipped as the favorite for the 2028 Republican nomination
Republican strategist Jai Chabria, who worked on Vance’s campaign, emphasized that just as Vance’s position has changed, so has Usha’s.
“Usha has undergone a similar change in views and fully supports Donald Trump and her husband and will do whatever she can to ensure their victory in November,” he said.
From wiping the floor with Tim Walz during the vice presidential debate to masterfully greasing the audience with his slick performances, Vance has become a fast favorite for the 2028 Republican ticket.
The influence of his wife on his chances apparently does not pass him by.
“Whenever I get a little too cocky or a little too proud, I remind myself that she’s way more talented than I am,” he told Megyn Kelly in a 2020 podcast interview.
“I’m one of those guys who really benefits from having a strong female voice over his left shoulder saying, ‘Don’t do this, do that.’
While Usha was closely involved in Vance’s campaign trail, but always stayed ‘out of the spotlight’.
Many of her friends were shocked that Usha actively supported Trump and her husband in making inflammatory statements.
Vance was set up to monitor the campaign trail in Ohio just weeks before the November election.

Like her husband, Usha, strategists say, took a sharp turn to the right in her politics as she matured
Donald Trump Jr. said at the time: “We get four more years of Trump and then eight more years of JD Vance!”
Many Republican politicians, strategists and pundits also agree that Vance is clearly a likely front-runner for the next Republican president.
On Monday, President Trump praised the couple, adding, “She’s great and he’s great.
“This is a wonderful, beautiful couple.”
The president’s support not only for Vance, but also his strong admiration for Usha, greatly enhances Vance’s potential for success in 2028.
And Usha, who is happier ‘out of the spotlight’ and focused on motherhood, is expected to remain Vance’s political guide, whispering words of wisdom over his shoulder.