After almost 200 turbulent days in office, US Vice-President JD Vance has earned the right to a relaxing holiday – so it may be of little surprise that he has reportedly chosen to retreat to a cosy corner of the Cotswolds.
The 40-year-old is set to visit Charlbury, a civil parish around 12 miles north-west of Oxford, for his annual break with wife Usha and children Ewan Blaine, Vivek and Mirabel.
Fashion journalist and socialite Plum Sykes told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that the family would be staying in a rented house in Oxfordshire, as Trump visits the UK to inaugurate his new golf course and hold talks with PM Sir Keir Starmer.
She suggested Charlbury captures the quintessential idea of life in the English countryside.
And as it happens, it’s home to the UK’s best pub – ideal for a man who confessed on the campaign trail last year: ‘I do like to drink beer… I probably like to drink beer a little bit too much.’
Ms Sykes claimed to know ‘the whole story’ about Vance’s decision to take a transatlantic trip, which comes after chat show host Ellen DeGeneres relocated to the area – ironically, to escape the current US administration.
She told Radio 4: ‘There has been this mass exodus from America to the Cotswolds because it’s an English fantasy of the countryside.
‘But it’s so glamorous and it’s sort of very hot because one person goes, Ellen goes.’
She continued: ‘The fact that JD Vance has rented this house in Charlbury I have to say I secretly know the whole story, but I can’t tell you.
‘It’s just so hot and so trendy and so fashionable… it’s an incredibly beautiful area because it’s being protected, almost like a national park that you can live in.
‘Americans cannot get over the charm but since Covid it’s been refashioned with all the pleasures of London, Paris and New York.’
Earlier this year, Charlbury was named as one of the best places to live in Oxfordshire, alongside the towns of Henley and Burford.
It’s only an hour away from London by direct train – making it an ideal place to live for the well-to-do commuter.
And just last week the Bull Inn hosted a pre-wedding dinner event for guests of Apple heiress Eve Jobs and her husband-to-be, the Olympian show jumper Harry Charles.
Among the illustrious company at the event was Vance’s predecessor Kamala Harris and Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica.
The wedding itself took place at St Michael & All Angels Church in Great Tew, a few miles away.
And if he does indeed favour a picturesque Oxfordshire escape, the second most powerful man in America will find himself well-entertained.
As well as The Bull pub – which re-opened under new management two years ago – there is the Charlbury Museum, founded in 1949.
Mr Vance could even take a trip to Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm Shop or The Farmer’s Dog pub, both of which are just a few miles away.
Ellen DeGeneres’ farmhouse is also within reach – though the star says she has hastily arranged a holiday to ensure she won’t cross paths with Mr Vance.
Last week it was revealed she is selling one of her two Cotswolds properties for a cool £22.5million – £7.5million more than she paid for it.
She and wife Portia de Rossi moved to the Cotswolds after she stepped away from showbiz under a cloud of allegations that her chat show had allowed a toxic work environment to foster.
A probe eventually saw three executive producers sacked – and the star issue an apology on-air for her part in not tackling the issues sooner.
She has since said she left the US to ‘get away from Donald Trump’ after he became president.
‘We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis and I was like, “He got in”,’ she previously said.
‘And we’re like, “We’re staying here then”.’
The US VP joins Beyonce and Jay-Z and Taylor Swift as fans of the bucolic area’s chocolate-box villages, honeyed-stone, rolling hills and cosy pubs.
The US politician’s family breaks have already racked up disharmony during his short time serving in office.
Last week, Disneyland visitors were left outraged after Vance shut down rides so he could enjoy them with his children.
The Vice President strolled through Disneyland in Los Angeles, California, hand-in-hand with two of his children, Vivek and Mirabel, last Saturday – with a vast Secret Service security detail alongside them.
Barricades went up outside popular rides including Pirates of the Caribbean as K9 units stood guard – with an entourage of 50 bodyguards and Disney personnel said to be involved in the visit.
Mr Vance and his family are expected to arrive in Britain soon after the President’s five-day stay in Scotland.
The Stop Trump Coalition has outlined plans to greet Mr Trump with banners and flags along roads and a beachside message visible from the sky.
Further action is intended for his proposed state visit expected to take place in September.
It has signalled similar opposition to Mr Vance’s British break, with a spokesman saying: ‘We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September.
‘JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump.
The prospect of such a heavy security presence in the winding rural roads of The Cotswolds is likely to spark logjams in an already overly congested area of the UK.
‘We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters.
‘We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.’
The Vice-President strolled through Disneyland in Los Angeles, California, hand-in-hand with two of his children, Vivek and Mirabel, last Saturday – with a vast Secret Service security detail alongside them.
In a speech in February, Mr Vance highlighted an SNP government law banning protest near abortion clinics, which critics said could be used to target people praying in their own homes, as an example of an attack on freedom of speech.
Mr Vance claimed people who live within safe access zones had been sent letters by the Scottish Government warning them about praying in their homes.
The Scottish Government had insisted that Mr Vance’s claim was ‘incorrect’.