Vice President JD Vance delivered a speech in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, on Friday to make a forceful case against outsourcing, foreign labor and what he described as decades of economic policies that weakened American manufacturing, while arguing that President Donald Trump's policies are helping reverse the decline.
Speaking at an event supporting Republican candidates in Ohio, Vance recalled stories he said had stayed with him since his school days, when classmates told him their parents had lost factory jobs after companies moved operations overseas.
He said some American workers later faced another indignity: being replaced by foreign workers and being required to train them before leaving their jobs.
Vance then recounted the case of Kevin Flanagan, a computer programmer whose story he said had particularly affected him.
According to Vance, Flanagan was told he would receive his severance package only if he trained a foreign replacement at the bank where he worked. Vance said Flanagan completed the training and died by suicide on his final day.
The story has previously circulated in reporting and commentary about American workers being replaced by foreign employees. Vance used it to argue that the consequences of labor displacement can extend far beyond employment statistics.
{{/usCountry}}The story has previously circulated in reporting and commentary about American workers being replaced by foreign employees. Vance used it to argue that the consequences of labor displacement can extend far beyond employment statistics.
{{/usCountry}}Vance connects outsourcing to opioid crisis
Vance broadened his argument from individual job losses to the social consequences he associates with the decline of American manufacturing.
He pointed to research linking the opioid crisis to communities hit particularly hard by the loss of industrial jobs and described the resulting deaths as "deaths of despair."
He also connected immigration and the fentanyl crisis, arguing that policies allowing more people to cross the border had enabled criminal organizations and the fentanyl trade to flourish.
Vance said those developments had left some families raising grandchildren after losing their own children. He framed the issue as part of what he considers the human cost of economic and immigration policies pursued over decades.
Vance attacks Wall Street Journal, corporate America
Vance also took aim at corporate executives and politicians whom he accused of putting profits ahead of American communities.
He specifically criticized The Wall Street Journal over its past advocacy for freer movement of labor and used the newspaper as a symbol of what he described as an economic consensus that favored globalization.
"Being replaced by foreign workers wasn't an accident," Vance said, according to coverage of the speech. "It was a desired outcome of a generation of American elites."
He argued that companies willing to move production overseas benefited financially while communities that depended on manufacturing suffered.
Vance also invoked his own family history in Middletown, where his grandfather worked for decades at the local steel plant. He portrayed the community's industrial decline as a bipartisan failure and said politicians from both parties had spent years dismissing the importance of manufacturing in the United States.
Vance says Trump is rebuilding American manufacturing
The vice president contrasted that history with what he described as an industrial revival under Trump.
Vance said that, in roughly 18 months, the administration had seen "trillions" of dollars in new investment flow into the US for factories, mills, smelters and other manufacturing facilities.
He also cited a figure of 83,000 factory construction jobs added since Trump took office and said factory construction employment had "exploded."
Social media reaction
Vance's comments also drew strong reactions on X, particularly over criticism of the H-1B visa program and the practice of workers being asked to train foreign replacements.
A user, who shared a clip of Vance's remarks, wrote: "H-1B is the opposite of America First. American families deserve first shot at American jobs. Companies that force workers to train their foreign replacements are gutting the people who built this country."
Another user, backed the remark, writing: "I’ve been saying it for a year. H-1B is an America last program."
While one user posted, “No worker should ever feel disposable and America First should mean protecting American workers while demanding fairness from employers.”