JD Vance booed in DC as he awkwardly greets National Guard at Union Station Shake Shack

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Vice President JD Vance faced boos and derisive chants from protesters as he greeted National Guard troops at Union Station in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.

Meeting with the troops at Shake Shack, Vance thanked them, saying, “You guys bust your ass all day and we give you hamburgers — not a fair trade, but we’re grateful for everything you do.”

“Hey, guys, at ease,” Vance said as he arrived at the train station fast food restaurant, where the Guard members were already not standing at attention.

“So, we decided to bring the Secretary of Defense and Stephen Miller,” said Vance to a seemingly unfazed group of National Guard troops as protesters booed the vice president.

Speaking to the press, Miller said the White House would “add thousands more resources” to the effort of cracking down on crime in the nation’s capital, calling the protesters “stupid white hippies” and “communists.”

Vance was asked if the White House was set to extend federal control of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department, to which the vice president said that “if the president of the United States thinks that he has to extend this order to ensure that people have access to public safety, that’s exactly what he’ll do.”

He went on to claim that crime statistics “all over the country” have been “massively underreported.” When Vance was asked what proof he had that MPD data was inaccurate, he said that the statistics from the Department of Justice and the FBI “back it up.”

“It’s kind of bizarre that we have a bunch of old, primarily white people who are out there protesting the policies that keep people safe when they’ve never felt danger in their entire lives,” Vance insisted.

The vice president also said he was “highly skeptical” of polling showing that a majority of D.C. residents don’t support the presence of the National Guard or the federal takeover of the city’s police department, adding that maybe they were “the same polls that said Kamala Harris would win the popular vote by 10 points.”

Protesters frequently drowned out Vance as he spoke, as they chanted “shame,” “this is our city,” and “we want the military out of our streets,” CNN noted.

“You hear these guys outside. They appear to hate the idea that Americans can enjoy their communities,” said Vance, referring to them as “crazy protesters.”

Without evidence, Miller suggested that the protesters were “not part of the city.”

Vance claimed on several occasions that Union Station had been taken over by “drug addicts,” “vagrants,” as well as the “chronically homeless.”

“We have changed so much in nine days, and I thought it important to highlight how great of a space this could be, how easy it could be to actually enjoy something like Union Station if you just had politicians who stopped prioritizing violent criminals over the public citizens who deserve public safety in their own communities,” said Vance.

Vance’s interaction with the troops in Union Station initially evoked memories of his campaign stop to a southern doughnut shop last summer.

The then-senator went viral during the 2024 presidential campaign when he seemed to have a hard time interacting with workers at Holt’s Sweet Shop in Georgia last August.

As Vance thanked a woman behind the counter for allowing them to pop in, she told him, “I don’t want to be on film.”

“She doesn’t wanna be on film, guys, so just cut her out of anything,” Vance told his entourage.

Vance then looked at the doughnut display before saying, “I’m JD Vance, I’m running for vice president, good to see you.”

“Okay,” the woman said, seemingly unimpressed.

Then he seemed to be unable to pick out a variety of pastries for his entourage.

“We’re gonna do two dozen. Just a random assortment of stuff here,” he continues while browsing the donuts in the display cases.

“Everything. A lot of glazed here. Sprinkle stuff. A lot of cinnamon rolls. Just whatever makes sense,” Vance said.

As the worker fills up his box of donuts, Vance struggled to make small talk by asking workers behind the counter how long they had been working there.

He asked one worker how long the place had been around, and was told it had been in business for four years.

“About four years? OK,” Vance said. “Well, we selected this place. I didn’t know if it had been here for 20 years or four years. You never know.”