The story of the incredible J. D. Vance

In the beginning, the man was a walking answer. When JD Vance suddenly went from elite college graduate to public figure in 2016 with his book "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," he seemed to have come to explain.

Using his own example, Vance demonstrated the fractures and fragility of many biographies from the American Rust Belt. Why these people, whom some call "white trash," have fallen for Donald Trump's empty promises in droves.

Today, however, the Vice President of the United States of America is a big question mark for many. This is where the ZDF documentary "Trump's Man for the Rough: How Much Power Does JD Vance Have?" comes in. Or at least attempts to.

To understand Vance, you have to know where he comes from, says ZDF. So you flash back. You talk to people from Middletown, Ohio, where Vance was born. You hear from people with wild hair and bad teeth about what's missing in the Rust Belt. Everything. What does it mean to them that one of them is now sitting in the White House? Everything.

For most people there, "vice" is synonymous with "preliminary stage." He would be a great president, says Republican Joe Statzer of Ohio, for example, into the camera. If you listen to these people, then Trump is merely a trailblazer, followed by something new: J.D. Vance. For what reasons and with what consequences? The filmmakers don't explore this further.

Instead, the documentary jumps from Ohio to the elite Yale University. There, former classmates in expensive suits and with bleached teeth are interviewed; the milieu has changed.

Some fellow students don't recognize the politician of today as their friend from back then. Others had seen it all coming long ago. Then the milieu changes again. Republican red and Trumpian yellow-blonde hair appear, while the documentary flips through Vance's public appearances: from "Never-Trumper" to Trump's most staunch defender.

It's not wrong to ask where someone comes from when trying to figure out where they're going. But for the first 35 of a total of 45 minutes, the ZDF documentary dutifully follows the narrative that Vance himself established with his biography and has since skillfully exploited. The attempt at explanation degenerates into a retelling. Precisely because this admittedly charming story from the very bottom to almost the very top is exactly the story Vance wants to tell about himself, it loses its significance.

Where deep drilling would be worthwhile, there's only time to channel surf: Tucker Carlson, on whose shows Vance adjusted his political volume control; then the long-standing friendship between Trump's eldest son and Vance. Channel surfing for support from Silicon Valley, especially from right-libertarian tech entrepreneur and billionaire Peter Thiel and Elon Musk; channel surfing for "Project 2025," which sought to fundamentally restructure the American government; channel surfing for Vance's friendship with "Project 2025" initiator Kevin Roberts.

These people, their connections, and their ideologies, may hold the answers to the title question: How much power does Vance have? Does he really believe what he claims to believe? And what is that even? Or is he just interested in maximizing his career? Is Trump using him—or vice versa? And what might follow if J.D. Vance rises to the top?

Answers are best found in the people and events that shaped Vance as an adult. But even his wife Usha, who Vance calls the most important person in his life, remains a phantom. Thus, the documentary degenerates into a well-organized preface.

In the ZDF media library.