Second Lady Usha Vance is setting off for Italy! Vice President JD Vance's wife will lead a presidential delegation to the 2025 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Turin on Friday, March 7. President Donald Trump announced the second lady's role on Thursday.
According to the office of the second lady, Usha plans on attending several Special Olympic events, including the opening ceremony, which is taking place on Saturday, March 8. The 2025 multi-sport event runs through March 15.
The Special Olympics are regarded as the world’s largest sports and humanitarian event. This year, "more than 1,500 athletes from 100 delegations will compete in eight sports"—alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, dance sport, figure skating, floorball, short track speed skating, snowboarding and snowshoeing—per the event's website.
The U.S. presidential delegation attending the opening ceremony includes Chargé d'Affaires Shawn Crowley; 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 at the U.S. Department of State; Consul General Douglass Benning; Rachel Campos-Duffy, FOX News host and wife of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation; Boris Epshteyn, senior counsel and senior advisor to President Trump; and Richard Walters, a partner at FGS Global.
The presidential delegation is scheduled to return to the U.S. on Monday, March 10. Days before leading the delegation, the second lady stepped out for the president's joint address to Congress. Usha looked characteristically elegant for her appearance on March 4 at the U.S. Capitol, where she was photographed shaking hands with First Lady Melania Trump.
Usha made history in January, becoming the first Indian American second lady. The Yale University alum beamed with pride as her husband JD took the oath of office inside the Capitol Rotunda.
The second lady and the 50th vice president of the United States, who met while attending Yale Law School, have been married since 2014. The pair share three children: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.
Elon Musk's mom Maye Musk has praised Usha, writing on X that the second lady "is even lovelier in person, smart and charming."
The second lady's page on the White House website notes that "in her free time, Ms. Vance is a trustee of the Washington National Opera and has served on the board of the Gates Cambridge Alumni Association and as secretary of the board of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra."