Politics

‘Shut The Hell Up About Pikachu’: JD Vance Almost Missed Trump’s VP Call Over Pokémon Cards

Former President Trump And VP Nominee Sen. JD Vance Hold Rally In St. Cloud, Minnesota

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Robert McGreevy Reporter
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When former President Trump called JD Vance to offer him the role of his running mate, Vance almost missed the call because his son was trying to show him Pokémon cards, the Republican Ohio Senator explained in a Friday interview.

Vance actually did miss Trump‘s first phone call during the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, he explained to the Full Send Podcast.

“We fly to Milwaukee, and I have no idea what’s going on. And the plane doesn’t have Wi-Fi on it, so it’s about an hour flight and I land and I’ve got about 350 messages,” Vance explained.

“One of them is from somebody on the Trump campaign and says ‘hey, check your phone, make sure you don’t miss a call because a really important call is coming.’ So I’m like ‘oh shit,’ right — either a good call or a bad call but it’s an important call,” he continued. “About an hour later I get another message from the same person who says ‘hey, you just missed a really important call.'”

“I’m like ‘oh no.’ So I call Trump and I’m like ‘hey, sir, what’s going on.’ And he’s like ‘JD, you missed a very important phone call, and now I’m gonna have to pick someone else.’ And I tense up and almost have a heart attack,” he added. (RELATED: JD Vance’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Skyrockets To Top Of Charts Following VP Rollout)

“The crazy thing about it is my son, who’s seven, is in the hotel room with me, and he’s really into Pokémon cards right now,” Vance explains. “So he’s trying to talk to me about Pikachu, and I’m on the phone with Donald Trump. And I’m like ‘son … shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu. This is the most important phone call of my life.'”

Vance then explained that Trump asked to talk to his son and read the statement he would eventually release to the public announcing Vance as his VP pick to his son.

“He asked my son, ‘what do you think about that?’ And my son’s like ‘oh, it sounds pretty good.’ And he goes ‘ok, fine’ and he hangs up the phone and the statement goes out five minutes later. And then my whole life changed. And that’s how it happened,” Vance concluded.