Usha Vance To Lead Presidential Delegation To Special Olympics Winter Games

Second Lady Usha Vance has been chosen to lead the U.S. presidential delegation to Italy for the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games, as announced by the Office of President Donald Trump on Thursday.

Vance will oversee the delegation traveling to Turin, Italy, the city hosting this year’s Games, with the opening ceremony set for Friday.

Usha, an attorney, has been married to Vice President JD Vance since 2014, and the couple shares three children.

During Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Usha Vance sat beside former high school volleyball player Payton McNabb. McNabb later expressed to Fox News Digital that she was “heartbroken” upon discovering that the Senate had not codified Trump’s executive order regarding transgender athletes’ participation in women’s and girls’ sports into law.

“Last night, just overall, the Democrat Party was so disrespectful,” McNabb stated, referring to members who wore pink and held up signs during the congressional session.

“And they didn’t stand up for any of the guests. They didn’t stand up for DJ Daniel, who is the young boy who survived brain cancer. They didn’t stand up for Laken Riley’s family, whose daughter literally suffered a traumatic death that should have never happened. And every other guest that was there had some sort of powerful story, and they didn’t clap for any of that,” she continued.

“So, it was heartbreaking, and honestly I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not,” McNabb concluded.

Fox further reported that The White House listed the following individuals as part of the presidential delegation:

Shawn Crowley, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., U.S. Embassy to Italy and San Marino; T.H. Trent Michael Morse, deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of presidential personnel; Riley M. Barnes, senior bureau official of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State; Douglass Benning, consul general, U.S. Consulate Milan, Italy; Rachel Campos-Duffy, “Fox & Friends Weekend” host and wife of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy; Boris Epshteyn, senior counsel and senior advisor to President Donald Trump; and Richard Walters, partner at FGS Global.

Meanwhile, members of left-wing legacy media were criticized for their remarks following Trump’s speech. MSNBC host Nicole Wallace faced strong backlash online for her comments regarding one of Trump’s guests.

During his speech, Trump acknowledged Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor whom he named an honorary U.S. Secret Service agent, receiving enthusiastic applause from Republicans. However, Democrats remained seated and refrained from clapping for the young boy.

After co-host Rachel Maddow accused Trump of politicizing Daniel’s recovery, Wallace added her own remarks.

“I think this was a lesson in finding one thing that you let yourself feel,” Wallace said in response to DJ’s viral moment during Trump’s speech. “And I let myself feel joy about DJ, and I hope he’s alive for another, you know, 95 years and I hope he lives the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop. He knows what he wants to do, and maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you.”

“I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer,” Wallace continued, before making a controversial remark: “But I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters, and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide, and I hope he isn’t one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”

Her comments drew immediate backlash online, with many strongly criticizing Wallace.