 In 2016, he rose to national fame over his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. It told the story of how he was brought up in Appalachia and raised by his grandparents. It was later adapted into a movie. First a never-Trumper and later a Trump ally, after he says he saw Trump's success in the Oval Office. Vance spoke this week at an event in Milwaukee at the Discovery World Science Museum.