Sen. JD Vance's (R-Ohio) idea to "punish" Americans with higher tax rates if they choose not to have children isn't going over well — particularly with one MAGA-aligned social media personality.
During a podcast segment with far-right activist Charlie Kirk in 2022 before announcing his run for Senate, Vance suggested that he would be in favor of alternate tax rates for Americans with children vs. Americans who don't have children.
"We need to reward the things that we think are good and punish the things that we think are bad. So you talk about tax policy, let’s tax the things that are bad and not tax the things that are good," he said. "If you’re making $100,000, $400,000 a year and you’ve got three kids, you should pay a different, lower rate than if you are making the same amount of money and you don’t have any kids. It’s that simple."
READ MORE: JD Vance suggested America should 'punish' people for not having children
That remark didn't resonate with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. In a Friday tweet, Portnoy posted the clip of Vance telling Kirk about his proposal, calling it "f—ing idiotic."
"You want me to pay more taxes to take care of other people's kids? We sure this dude is a Republican? Sounds like a moron," Portnoy tweeted. "If you can't afford a big family don't have a ton of kids."
The Barstool chief — who created a sports-centric media empire that has unabashedly embraced racism and sexism that Politico credited with influencing the modern GOP — has a sizable audience of 3.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 5.2 million followers on Instagram. He has also endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 cycle, calling him "the perfect guy for the job" in a Fox News interview from January. Portnoy interviewed Trump at the White House in 2020 and endorsed his first campaign in August of 2015, before primary voting even started.
"I am voting for Donald Trump. I don’t care if he’s a joke. I don’t care if he’s racist. I don’t care if he’s sexist. I don’t care about any of it. I hope he stays in the race and I hope he wins," Portnoy wrote at the time. "Why? Because I love the fact that he is making other politicians squirm. I love the fact he says shit nobody else will say, regardless of how ridiculous it is."
READ MORE: 'Obsession with controlling women': Harris calls JD Vance a 'creep' in scathing statement
In the span of roughly a week, Vance went from being heralded as the next generation of MAGA to having to fend off accusations of committing a sex act with a couch and allegedly searching for explicit content involving women and dolphins. And while a presidential candidate selecting a running mate usually provides a boost to their polling, Vance has actually been a drag on Trump's approval rating since he was nominated.
The constant drumbeat of negative coverage surrounding Vance and his past has prompted some Republicans to question whether the Ohio senator was the best VP pick for Trump. MSNBC columnist Steve Benen said Vance's "weird" and "far-right" views have made him a "piñata" for Democrats and the media.
Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy asked Trump on the program if the former president was still "100% behind" his running mate. Benen found that comment revealing.
"[T]he fact that a Fox host even felt the need to ask the question — a week after the party's national convention — was itself extraordinary. It was emblematic of a conversation in GOP circles that the party didn't expect to have," he wrote.
