The Roll Up: September 2, 2025 

TL;DR:  A crazy weekend on social media erupted in rumors of Donald Trump's demise and a race to find current photos of the president in action. J.D. Vance fanned the flames when he told USA Today last week he was prepared to assume the presidency if a "terrible tragedy" occurs. 

Here's what Rolli IQ social media intelligence is telling us about how the country feels about Vance:

In an administration so built on the cult of personality of its leader, Donald Trump, J.D. Vance finds himself in the unenviable position of trying to matter. The office of vice president has been the butt of jokes for years, seen as a position with no real responsibilities other than to be there in case the president resigns or dies. Despite recent attempts by presidents of both parties to give their running mates something important to do, the job remains one about which few Americans care.

Honeymoon in Washington
As the second Trump administration got underway in January, Vance appears to have received some extra attention as the fresh new face on the ticket. In the first week of the administration, the term "J.D. Vance" had more than a million engagements across Twitter/X, Bluesky, YouTube and Reddit. And as Rolli IQ analysis shows, the majority of those engagements were positive or neutral: 

Rolli IQ AI analysis of those million+ engagements shows a sense of optimism in many posters, as well as recognition of his weight loss. Others were more critical as Vance made early statements criticizing professors and higher education:

100 Day Doldrums

Skipping forward to that arbitrary 100 day measuring point by which we judge all administrations' beginnings, J.D. Vance seemed to have faded into the White House's new gold-plated woodwork. Rolli IQ analysis shows a drop in engagements on social media about the vice president, as well as a decline in positive sentiments and a rise in negative engagement:

One hundred days in, some of the negative engagement came from Vance's association to the growing unpopularity of some of the administration's policies. Interestingly, Rolli IQ AI analysis was also able to pick up on the connection people were making between Vance's visit to Pope Francis and the pontiff's death the very next day:

Trump's Health Puts Vance Back in the Spotlight
Analyzing this past week and the rampant rumors around Donald Trump's health, social media found J.D. Vance to be worth discussing again. Rolli IQ intelligence saw a small uptick in the amount of engagement Vance was getting on social media, with both positive and negative engagement on the rise:

One fascinating note found by Rolli IQ AI analysis credits California Governor Gavin Newsom for some of the renewed attention to Vance (see last week's newsletter), thanks to some of Newsom's tongue-in-cheek attacks on Vance on social media:

Vance Hot Topics
Aside from just looking at the volume and nature of the engagement about Vance, Rolli IQ can categorize the topics about the vice president found on social media. In the past week, those topics have been Vance's political ambitions, his controversial statements, his international relations efforts, his personal life and his public policy proposals. 

Driven by the comments to USA Today, reactions were mixed as users mused about Vance as president, with green arrows indicating positive comments and red arrows indicating negative ones:

World Reaction Mixed
Whether from Vance's role in foreign policy or the prospect he'll become the head of state with whom other nations must deal, the world is lining up with opinions on the vice president. Using Rolli IQ's Sentiment Mapping capabilities, it's clear to see social media reaction to Vance is negative (red lines) among longtime allies of the United States, while approval is harder find, limited in last week's analysis to Romania, Brazil and a few posters in Germany and the Czech Republic:

The bottom line is that the analysis using Rolli IQ to look at sentiments around J.D, Vance shows a figure who has settled into unpopularity with many. The rumor-driven prospect he could soon assume the presidency has not made a significant change in those sentiments.