attorney dui florida: What Is Usha Vance Thinking?

August 12, 2026

It’s possible to read the headline of this newsletter—which is also the headline of Kate Andersen Brower’s juicy new story about America’s second lady—in two ways. The first: What exactly is going on inside the brain of Usha Vance, a public figure who has morphed herself into the perfect Republican politician’s wife: “present, useful, and almost invisible,” as Kate puts it? The second: What would drive a high-powered liberal lawyer like Usha toward this strange position in the first place? (In other words: What on earth is she thinking?) Kate offers a few convincing potential answers for both readings.

Elsewhere, I’ve got a dispatch from a very entertaining live recording of Amy Poehler’s podcast, and Rebecca Ford has a wide-ranging conversation with another Emmy nominee: Jason Bateman, recognized in four distinct categories this year for his work on two different shows. More tomorrow!

HILLARY BUSIS,
FEATURES EDITOR

What Is Usha Vance Thinking?

BY KATE ANDERSEN BROWER

“It’s patronizing to say that she’s been silenced,” one Yale Law classmate says of JD Vance’s wife, who has perfected the art of knowing where she stands in the Trump administration’s political pecking order. “She has chosen this.”… Read more

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Culture Watch

LITTLE GOLD MEN

Jason Bateman Still Hates Baths, but Loves Playing Messy Men

BY REBECCA FORD

The actor, who’s up for four Emmys this year—for DTF St. Louis and Black Rabbit—talks to VF about playing screw-ups and why cohosting SmartLess has been the “easiest yet most lucrative” work of his career… Read more

PODCAST

Amy Poehler Shows What It Takes to Be a Good Hang

BY HILLARY BUSIS

D’Arcy Carden, William Jackson Harper, and Abbi Jacobson dropped by for a live recording as warm as an episode of Parks and Recreation… Read more

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Stealing Mona Lisa

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The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered. From the May 2009 issue, the authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime…

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