NY native Marine who danced with VP JD Vance at Commander in Chief Ball reveals joke he told to ‘break the ice’
The Marine chosen to dance with JD Vance on inauguration night revealed that the 50th vice president made a quick joke backstage to “break the ice” and ease her nerves before she stepped on stage in front of America.
Staff Sgt. Lexus Martinez, 27 — a native New Yorker working as a food service specialist with the Washinton, DC-based Marine Corps Enlisted Aide Program, which hosts and caters private events for high-ranking generals — credits “luck” for being picked to dance with the vice president, she told The Post Wednesday.
“It felt surreal,” she reflected on being selected.
“It was like a lucky moment kind of thing.”
Each branch of the nation’s armed forces sent one member to dance with President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vance and second lady Usha Vance at the Commander in Chief Ball at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center Monday night.
Martinez, who arrived in DC in April after serving three years as a recruiter in Smithtown, New York, said her unit was tapped with finding a Marine to dance with Vance — and she decided to apply for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The Brooklyn-born Marine learned she would hit the dance floor with the new veep a week later, the Friday before Inauguration Day.
On Sunday, she and the other service members selected had a rehearsal without Trump and Vance, so the nerves of the historic moment didn’t hit her until she was waiting backstage for the ceremony to begin.
“President Trump and Vice President JD Vance walked by and they just wanted to shake our hands, thank us for our service and to get facial recognition of who they were dancing with,” Martinez said, and that’s when the 50th vice president made a “really funny joke” that “broke the ice.”
“He said, ‘Well, I hope you don’t step on my feet.’ And I said, ‘Well, I hope you teach me how to dance up there,’” and the two shared a brief laugh.
“It made me feel more relaxed,” Martinez said. “He still has that Marine Corps humor.”
Vance served in the Marines from 2003 to 2007 as a combat correspondent, with one tour in Iraq before leaving the service and using the GI Bill to attend Ohio State University.
The dad of three is also the first veep to have served in the Marine Corps.
During their dance, the pair talked about Martinez’s time in the Marines and where she’d been stationed during her nine-year career.
Before she knew it, the song ended, and she was walking off more confident than ever because of how down-to-earth Vance, 40, was during their encounter.
“Him acknowledging me as a Marine and just like joking with me in that way. It felt cool to just be myself because, in the Marines, we’re all family no matter what. You’re a Marine 24/7,” she explained.
“I was talking to someone in the brotherhood like we were family already. It just all felt so natural.”
Following the dance, Martinez and the other service members briefly returned to the stage to roll out the ceremony’s cake for Trump and Vance before calling it a night.
The Marine said that her mom, sister — her “biggest fan” — and two brothers back in New York were beyond proud at seeing their loved one on stage dancing with the vice president.
“My phone was blowing up the second I got off the stage,” she said, adding that her “phone is still being bombarded” days after the ceremony by friends and family.
