Jacob Reses, the Jewish chief of workers to Vice President JD Vance, is leaving the administration on the finish of the summer time, a supply confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Company on Thursday.
Reses, who’s been in his position since Vance and President Donald Trump took workplace in January 2025, is maybe the closest Jewish official in Vance’s orbit. He has had a detailed relationship with the vp since Vance’s 2022 Senate marketing campaign in Ohio.
A supply conversant in the matter confirmed NBC Information’ preliminary report that Reses knowledgeable Vance of his determination months in the past, after his spouse turned pregnant. Vance mentioned in a press release on Thursday that he’ll “miss him dearly, however he gained’t be far, and I plan to maintain his counsel shut till our paths cross once more.” Reses’ plans for his subsequent position are at the moment unknown.
Vance has lately drawn the ire of some Jewish Republicans who say that he has refused to confront antisemitism on the appropriate, together with from former Fox information host Tucker Carlson. (Carlson’s son can be a Vance staffer.) A New York Journal profile revealed in March instructed that Reses was on board with Vance’s method, and revealed that Reses used his non-public X account to amplify voices calling on Jews to embrace, fairly than resist, the Christian nationalist present surging throughout the GOP.
Reses has been “by my aspect for my entire profession in public life,” Vance mentioned in a press release.
“I can’t think about having been on this life-changing journey with out him,” Vance mentioned. “From day considered one of my time as a Senator-elect, I couldn’t have requested for a extra loyal and discerning advisor and buddy as my chief of workers.”
The non-public bond between the 2 males was on show in January, when Vance took half in Reses’ marriage ceremony to Rachel Altman at a synagogue in Rockville, Maryland, delivering a Jewish prayer below the chuppah. Chabad of Princeton College, Reses’ alma mater, posted a photograph of the couple with the vp, celebrating the event as an expression of Jewish satisfaction.
That closeness, and Reses’ reported alignment with Vance’s stance on right-wing antisemitism, haven’t spared Reses from changing into a goal of antisemites. In a single occasion, a white-nationalist web site ran an article about him headlined, “One other Nail within the Coffin — Jew Runs J. D. Vance.”
A Jewish Telegraphic Company profile revealed in 2024, when Vance was chosen as Trump’s working mate, traced Reses’ Jewish id and his journey from a Democratic-leaning Jewish teenager in southern New Jersey, whose grandfather escaped the Holocaust in Lithuania, to one of the influential conservatives in Washington. His trajectory included internships for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, a political conversion at Princeton and stints on the Heritage Basis and within the workplace of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
On Thursday, Republican leaders and Trump administration officers sang Reses’ praises in statements shared with JTA.
“Jacob Reses has been a useful, loyal, and trusted hand to Vice President Vance and President Trump,” mentioned Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “As a proud Jewish American, whose circle of relatives story carries the load of our folks’s historical past, Jacob introduced each conviction and readability to one of the consequential roles in Washington.” Brooks added that the RJC has “little doubt he’ll proceed to play a important position transferring ahead.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who’s seen as a attainable challenger to Vance for the 2028 presidential nomination, mentioned that Reses served Vance and the complete administration “with distinction,” and that he “understands the second we’re in and he spent day by day combating to ship outcomes for the President.”
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s particular envoy to the Center East, mentioned he was proud to have Reses “by my aspect in negotiating a number of the hardest offers for the President.”
“Don’t let Jacob idiot you — beneath his sort exterior he’s a killer,” Witkoff mentioned. “It’s been a delight to get to know him via the Vice President, and our overseas adventures from Israel to Pakistan have been historic.”
He added, “We haven’t seen the final of him.”
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