President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Sen. James David Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.
Trump Said In a statement Monday afternoon, he said, “After lengthy deliberations and consideration, and after taking into account the extraordinary talents of many people, I have determined that the person best qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.”
Vance was born in Middleton, Ohio, and is a former Marine who served with the 2nd Marine Air Wing during the Iraq War, graduated from Yale Law School, worked as a corporate lawyer, worked as a venture capitalist, wrote the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” and later served as a U.S. senator.
Vance was initially a strong critic of Trump, but
tell In 2016, he told NPR that he couldn’t stand the views of the then-Republican presidential nominee. Assert Although he called Trump “unfit for the highest office in our nation” in a 2016 New York Times op-ed, Vance still understands the real estate mogul’s appeal, saying:
To those humiliated by defeat, President Trump promises to win again. To those despairing at a government that can’t take care of the people it sends to war, President Trump promises to take care of our veterans. To voters outraged at politicians who sent their children to fight, bleed, and die in Iraq, President Trump says what no major Republican politician has said in the past decade: the war was a terrible mistake foisted on the country by an incompetent president.
We have long seen that Trump is not only willing but able to deliver on many of his promises.
wage, Securing the borderand by refraining from joining his predecessors’ practice of starting at least one new war, Vance quickly sided with Trump.
Vance
Apologized Speaking to Trump on cable news in 2021, he said, “Don’t judge me for what I said in 2016, because I have openly acknowledged that I said critical things and I regret them and I regret being wrong about President Trump. I think he’s been a good president. I think he’s made a lot of good decisions for the people and I think he’s taken a lot of flak.”
Vance also understood Trump’s America First policy to be about prioritizing not America as an idea, but the concrete realities that make up America – specifically, its people and its physical homeland.
Speaking recently at the National Conference of Conservatives in Washington, D.C., Vance said, “I’m very optimistic about the future of this movement and the future of our country because, for the first time in a very long time, it’s clear that the leader of the Republican Party is not some desperate donor for cheap labor or some random person claiming to speak for this constituency or that constituency. The leader of the Republican Party is someone who is actually trying to put the American people first, and that’s Donald Trump.”
in
interview Speaking with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat last week, Vance elaborated on his political shift, saying, “Like many other elite conservatives and elite liberals, I was so focused on the stylistic elements of Mr. Trump that I never realized that he was offering fundamentally different proposals on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration.”
Trump apparently supported Vance when he ran for Senate in Ohio and bears no grudge against him for his previous comments or concerns.
“He will not let you down. Make America Great Again!”
“J.D. Vance, like others, may have said some not-so-nice things about me in the past, but he knows it now, and I’ve seen enough of it,” Trump said.
Said The endorsement statement reads, “He is strong on the border, tough on crime, understands how to hold China accountable through taxes and tariffs, has fought to break up big tech companies, and has been a fighter against election fraud and a stolen presidential election. JD is a Marine who served in the Iraq War and is an outstanding student who graduated from Ohio State University and earned a law degree from Yale.”
“He will put America first,” Trump added. “I have my full support for J.D. Vance. He will not let you down. Make America Great Again!”
Regarding recent efforts in the media to dig up Vance’s past criticism of Trump, Donald Trump Jr. said:
Said “I have 100% confidence that JD is fundamentally an America First president,” he told CNN.
“There is no senator who has been a stronger supporter of my father,” Trump Jr. added.
Beyond the Trump family, Vance also enjoys the trust of other big-name right-wing populists.
Tucker Carlson
Said “I think I have a really good feel for the senator, and he’s by far the smartest and most insightful person I’ve ever met,” Politico quoted him as saying earlier this year.
“He’s the only intellectual in power, and he has incredible power,” Steve Bannon said. “This movement needed someone like J.D.”
While there may be many reasons why Trump chose Vance as his running mate, including Vance’s staunch pro-worker populism and the fact that they are not from the same state, the former president’s contrarian reflexes may have been a factor.
After all, leftists, liberals and even nominal Republicans are urging Trump not to pick Vance.
“Choosing Vance would allow the Biden campaign to sell the message that this is very much a MAGA candidate and he must be defeated.”
Des Potas, columnist for USA Today
was suggested On Saturday, Trump argued that a “more traditional” and “boring” candidate should be chosen — certainly not Vance.
“The selection of an extreme running mate such as 39-year-old Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio could divert some of the attention from Biden and redirect media and voter attention back to Trump’s MAGA message and the extreme politics that come with it,” Potas warned.
“First, Vance is irritating to principled Republicans. I know this because I’m one, and the statistics back it up,” said a self-described Republican columnist. “Second, picking Vance would allow the Biden campaign to sell the message that their candidate is very much a MAGA candidate and must be defeated. Of course, Democrats will try this tactic anyway, but picking a more unity-oriented Republican and traditional conservative candidate would make this view seem less irrational to the right-wing swing voters Trump needs to win.”
Instead of Vance, Potas recommended former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, as an ideal running mate.
David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist and adviser to former President Barack Obama, suggested Vance should be disqualified for suggesting Biden’s inflammatory comments set the stage for an assassination attempt on President Trump.
Vance after the shooting at Saturday’s Trump rally.
I have written“A central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric led directly to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
Axelrod
I have written“If @JDVance1 was on the VP shortlist, this tweet, posted an hour after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, should disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign. The tone of the moment was wrong.”
“Trump probably doesn’t want a vice president who is going to say things on the spot,” Axelrod added.
Trump apparently had no problem certifying Axelrod.
Different again Or disappointing people like POTUS.
Trump further stated in his announcement of Vance’s nomination for vice president, “JD served our country honorably in the Marines, graduated summa cum laude from Ohio State University in his second year, and graduated from Yale Law School where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal and president of the Yale Law Veterans Association. JD’s book, Hillbilly Elegy, championed the hardworking men and women of our country and was made into a best-seller and film. JD has had a highly successful business career in technology and finance, and now during this campaign he will focus on the people he fought so successfully for – American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and beyond.”
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