‘He’s pulling the ladder up …’: JD Vance’s former classmate explains how he benefited from the same DEI measures he’s attacking

One of J. D. Vance’s former Yale classmates recently reminded Americans how the Vice President benefitted from the same DEI measures he and Donald Trump are now attacking.

Although Trump had previously promised to end the Russo-Ukrainian War on his first day in office and to lower grocery prices, he instead prioritized striking down diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the federal government. He quickly placed all DEI staff on paid leave with promises of future layoffs, took federal DEI webpages offline, and rescinded multiple executive orders to combat discriminatory hiring practices in the government, including the 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity order. Trump claims he’s bringing back fairness and a “merit-based” workplace to America. However, many Americans have noticed his measures do not promote fairness. Instead, they’re all about removing protections for marginalized groups and striking down every measure intended to create an equal playing field.

Still, many of Trump’s supporters weren’t phased by his rescinding the Equal Employment Opportunity executive order because they thought it wouldn’t impact them. They believe that DEI will only harm women, BIPOC individuals, and the LGBTQ+ community, who they claim are getting preferential hiring treatment. This is why many are thrilled with the concept of abolishing DEI practices. However, their arguments don’t hold up well when confronted with the fact that people like Vance also benefited from DEI initiatives.

J. D. Vance and veterans among those aided by DEI

During the presidential campaign, several media outlets covered Vance’s past DEI benefits, which were especially ironic given the Trump administration’s claim that Kamala Harris was the “DEI hire.” Vance’s former classmate, Thomas Burke, Jr., recently brought the topic back to the forefront and broke down how the Vice President benefited from DEI.

In a TikTok video, Burke explains that he attended Yale University at the same time as Vance. Both Vance and Burke were former marines who attended Yale University with the aid of the G.I. Bill. Burke explains, “We both were able to be recipients of DEI efforts at Yale University. At the time that I was a student, there were only five veterans in my entire program.” In Vance’s law program, he was one of just six veterans enrolled. Today, through DEI measures meant to increase veteran enrollment, the number of veterans at Yale Law School is in the “20s or 30s.” Although these measures benefitted Vance, Burke notes, “He’s now turning around, and he’s pulling the ladder up, so that people like him, who grew up in poor Appalachia, who joined the marines, who were able to use the G. I. Bill, are no longer able to follow in his footsteps because he wants to remove the same DEI programs that got him to where he is today.”

Burke’s video reminds conservatives that “diversity” doesn’t just apply to BIPOC and LGBTQ+ individuals; it also applies to the military or those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, such as Vance. That’s not to say Vance didn’t deserve entry to Yale Law School. However, Yale’s DEI efforts to include veterans meant that he had the opportunity to be considered by a prestigious university that generally wouldn’t have considered someone like him who didn’t have an Ivy League school in his background. It’s also highly likely that DEI initiatives contributed to him nabbing a book deal for a personal memoir as a fresh Yale graduate without a big name. Again, DEI has never been about forcing schools and workplaces to give preferential treatment to certain individuals. It is only meant to allow people the opportunity to be considered for jobs and colleges that otherwise would’ve discounted them due to their background.

Few things demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Trump administration more than Vance benefiting from DEI programs while ensuring that no one else with his background will get the same benefits he did. There are also few stronger indicators of bias than the fact that America passively ignores Vance’s DEI history and just assumes he’s a self-made man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps while simultaneously insisting that women with decades of experience, like Harris or Ketanji Brown Jackson, must be “unqualified” and “DEI hires.” The Trump administration has manipulated Americans into thinking DEI is something it’s not, even as their own Vice President is the perfect example of what DEI is all about.