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By Jordan King
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Donald Trump is "absolutely thrilled" with JD Vance's performance in the vice presidential debate against Tim Walz, the former president's campaign adviser has said.
Both candidates went head-to-head in a debate on CBS News on Tuesday night, around five weeks before Election Day.
Vance went into it with lower popularity ratings than his counterpart and Trump seemingly played down expectations for his running mate when he said the debate would be "rigged" against Vance.
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But Trump was "absolutely thrilled with JD Vance's performance," campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez told Fox News later on Tuesday night.
"It is very clear that JD Vance was able to articulate the message of the Trump-Vance ticket, was able to remind voters of the prosperous four years when President Donald J. Trump was in the White House and was able to take Tim Walz to task on Kamala Harris's failed three-and-a-half years," she said, adding that "it was an incredible performance."
"The president was thrilled, and I think the American people know the choice between them," she said.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Vance "crushed it" several times and then posted a message directly to the Ohio senator, saying: "GREAT JOB JD—We will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Similarly, Kamala Harris and her campaign team, using the account Kamala HQ, have posted multiple clips of Walz's performance at the debate on X, formerly Twitter.
Before the debate, Harris wrote to her running mate: "Tim Walz, it's game time. I am excited for the country to see you in action."
People generally seem split on who won the debate, although it will take a few days for reliable data to come out about this.
A flash CBS/YouGov poll of 1,630 voters showed that 42 percent thought Vance won, while 41 percent backed Walz and 17 percent said it was a tie. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percent.
Vance won on the economy (51 percent) and immigration (52 percent), while Walz won on abortion (62 percent) and healthcare (59 percent). They tied on the conflict in the Middle East (50 percent).
Both Vance and Walz generally stuck to a policy-focused debate, in which both men said that they believe their opponent wants to fix the major issues—namely the economy, immigration, reproductive rights and gun violence.
But there were tense moments, one of which was over the January 6 Capitol riots, where Walz said he and Vance are "miles away" on the topic, calling Vance's argument that the issue was one about censorship a "damning non-answer."
Newsweek has contacted teams for Trump, Vance and the Harris-Walz campaign, via email, for any further comment.
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