Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance could still be President Donald Trump’s running mate despite having committed what Trump sees as a heinous blunder, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination suggested Wednesday.
According to multiple reports, Vance’s crime was to accuse Trump of “Hitler in America” and Trumpism.”Opioids for the Masses“
Where Vance went wrong, according to a host of indignant pundits, was growing a beard.
“JD has a beard,” says anonymous “Trump aide” and Vance supporter I told the Bulwark “But he’s clean-shaven. He just doesn’t like beards,” Trump said this week.
Given the proliferation of reports about President Trump’s dislike of facial hair, it appears that was the right call. sons Donald Jr. and Eric Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, moustache It was worn by John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser.
But on Wednesday, interview In an interview with Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade, Trump played down the topic.
“Just listen,” Kilmeade said, “As far as the running mate, there’s a rumor going around that J.D. Vance wouldn’t be chosen because of his beard. Is that true?”
Trump answered, “No.”
“He looks good,” Trump added. “He looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.”
Trump did not say much more about Vance, but he also said he would announce his running mate “close to” next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, both of whom have experience and are clean-shaven, are considered potential candidates.
“Before, they used to pick during the convention,” Trump said. “And frankly, it makes the convention more interesting. They used to pick during the convention. And that’s what I want to do.”
Not surprisingly, Trump’s comparison of Vance to “a young Abraham Lincoln” was not strictly accurate.
Vance, 39, is a formerPublic Relations Ocean” teeth Venture capitalist The best-selling author initially resisted Trumpism but embraced it after being elected to the Senate in 2022, emerging as a fervent right-wing populist voice.
In 1848, Lincoln was 39 years old, a clean-shaven lawyer living in Springfield, Illinois, and a former Whig congressman who had been expelled from Washington after one term.
After winning the presidency as a Republican, Lincoln grew a beard, but not a mustache, well into middle age at age 51, likely at the urging of a reporter 40 years his junior.
“I have four siblings,” said Grace Bedell, 11, of Westfield, New York. Lincoln was informed in a letter In October 1860, he wrote, “Some of them will vote for you anyway. If you will grow a beard, I will endeavor to get the rest to vote for you.”
“Your face is so thin that you look much better with a beard. All the women love beards and they’ll beg their husbands to vote for you, and you’ll be president.”
Vance’s beard may have a similar motive: to project the experience and toughness he needs to appeal to President Trump and to voters.
“Without the beard, Vance looks like he’s 12,” said one anonymous Trump adviser. I told the Bulwark this week.
