The Marine chosen to bop with JD Vance on inauguration evening revealed that the fiftieth vice chairman made a rapid joke backstage to “break the ice” and ease her nerves earlier than she stepped on stage in entrance of America.
SSgt. Lexus Martinez, 27 — a local New Yorker working as a meals service specialist with the Washinton, DC-based Marine Corps Enlisted Aide Program, which hosts and caters non-public occasions for high-ranking generals — credit “luck” for being picked to bop with the vice chairman, she informed The Submit Wednesday.
“It felt surreal,” she mirrored on being chosen.
“It was like a fortunate second form of factor.”
Every department of the nation’s armed forces despatched one member to bop with President Trump, first woman Melania Trump, Vance and second woman Usha Vance on the Commander in Chief Ball on the Walter E. Washington Conference Heart Monday evening.
Martinez, who arrived in DC in April after serving three years as a recruiter in Smithtown, New York, stated her unit was tapped with discovering a Marine to bop with Vance — and he or she determined to use for the once-in-a-lifetime alternative.
The Brooklyn-born Marine realized she would hit the dancefloor with the brand new veep every week later, the Friday earlier than Inauguration Day.
On Sunday, she and the opposite servicemembers chosen had a rehearsal with out Trump and Vance, so the nerves of the historic second didn’t hit her till she was ready backstage for the ceremony to start.
“President Trump and Vice President JD Vance walked by and so they simply needed to shake our palms, thank us for our service and to get facial recognition of who they had been dancing with,” Martinez stated, and that’s when the fiftieth vice chairman made a “actually humorous joke” that “broke the ice.”
“He stated, ‘Nicely, I hope you don’t step on my toes.’ And I stated, ‘Nicely, I hope you educate me the right way to dance up there,’” and the 2 shared a quick snigger.
“It made me really feel extra relaxed,” Martinez stated. “He nonetheless has that Marine Corps humor.”
Vance served within the Marines from 2003 to 2007 as a fight correspondent, with one tour in Iraq earlier than leaving the service and utilizing the GI Invoice to attend Ohio State College.
The dad of three is additionally the primary veep to serve within the Marine Corps.
Throughout their dance, the pair talked about Martinez’s time within the Marines and the place she’d been stationed throughout her nine-year profession.
Earlier than she knew it, the tune ended, and he or she was strolling off extra assured than ever due to how down-to-earth Vance, 40, was throughout their encounter.
“Him acknowledging me as a Marine and identical to joking with me in that method. It felt cool to simply be myself as a result of, within the Marines, we’re all household it doesn’t matter what. You’re a Marine 24/7,” she defined.
“I used to be speaking to somebody within the brotherhood like we had been household already. It simply all felt so pure.”
Following the dance, Martinez and the opposite servicemembers briefly returned to the stage to roll out the ceremony’s cake for Trump and Vance earlier than calling it an evening.
The Marine stated that her mother, sister — her “greatest fan” — and two brothers again in New York had been past pleased with seeing their liked one on stage dancing with the vice chairman.
“My telephone was blowing up the second I obtained off the stage,” she stated, including that her “telephone continues to be being bombarded” days after the ceremony from family and friends.
Martinez, who stated she’s Puerto Rican and has “household all over the place,” was getting hit up by relations “throughout the globe” to specific how proud they had been of her.
“It actually form of introduced my household collectively lots.”