← Videos · Foreign Policy & Defense

Vance Attends the United States Marine Corps Ball, Nov. 8, 2025

November 8, 2025 · The White House · 0:22:21

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance attended the United States Marine Corps Ball in Washington, D.C., on the evening of November 8, 2025, celebrating the Corps’ 250th birthday, with the Vice President as guest of honor. Commandant General Eric Smith introduced him with a story from his 2005 battalion command in Ramadi, Iraq, about twin brothers Jesse and Joel Hyme, one of whom was killed by an IED and whose brother escorted his body home, as Smith recounted it.

Vance noted he is the first Vice President to have been a United States Marine, as he stated it, recalled enlisting as a 19-year-old at Parris Island, and credited the Corps with setting his life’s trajectory. He greeted Iwo Jima veterans present at the ball, and said the administration would keep “winning America’s wars for the next 250 years,” as he put it to the room.

Why it matters

The ball appearance is the Vice President’s signature military-community moment of the season: the Corps’ 250th birthday, three days before Veterans Day, with its most senior Marine veteran in elected office as guest of honor. It anchors Vance’s service record in the chronicle ahead of the Arlington observance paged alongside this one.

Sources: The White House, “Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance Attend the United States Marine Corps Ball” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks as delivered at the ball.