Vance bears Trump’s poisoned chalice and risks enduring taint – a power-attuned buffer strategy can turn risk into advantage. Few figures in contemporary American politics have risen as swiftly or as improbably as US Vice President J. D. Vance, propelled from relative obscurity to the very apex of power. Yet such meteoric ascent carries its own perils: What appears as extraordinary fortune conceals, under the surface, the very conditions of strategic entrapment. The crucible of power: Vance’s