JD Vance and Marco Rubio toast the new right together

Marco Rubio and JD Vance attended the American Compass Institute's gala on Tuesday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the think tank that best sums up the New Right.

According to RealClearPolitics (RCP), this is a type of conservatism defined by skepticism toward corporate capital, worship of union labor, wariness of foreign messes, belief in a stronger country, and an appetite for bigger government. None of this was part of Republican orthodoxy a few years ago.

From the main stage of the National Building Museum, a center dedicated to American architecture, Vance told the audience:

"This is a 20-year project to get America back to an economic policy with common sense," and emphasized, "I just want normal people who work hard and follow the rules to have a good life," reported CPR.

"I've given up hope that we can convince most of the intellectuals in Washington to change," he told the crowd. "We can't change them. What we can do is replace them with all of you. And that is exactly what we intend to do."

Also, referring to the memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt in a recent opinion article for The Wall Street Journal(WSJ), Vance advocated calling markets "a tool" for government purposes, something that, according to RCP, more libertarian conservatives find anathema and which was music to American Compass' ears.

During the event, RCP claims that a new kind of elite listened to Vance's speech about the need to achieve fairer trade, reorient higher education to the national interest, and offshore manufacturing.

Marco Rubio and JD Vance, a true friendship

Marco Rubio also made his presence felt during the gala, recalling that he met Vance "when he was just a best-selling author and not even a political figure." According to the secretary of state, since joining the Trump Administration, his respect for the vice president has only grown, he added, saying Vance was "doing a phenomenal job" and "my admiration for him has grown tremendously."

Later, the vice president effusively said that "Marco is, if anything, more impressive in private than he is in public." More than mere niceties, senior administration officials affirm to RCP that the friendship is genuine.