USA Trump's right-hand man
In 2024, Donald Trump's approach to announcing his running mate is a bit like that of his reality show "The Apprentice": first, people are kicked out. While the delegates at the party convention in Milwaukee are in the process of officially choosing the Republican as their presidential candidate, the first news trickles in. Senator Marco Rubio: out. Governor Doug Burgum: out. Their names had been circulating for weeks, just like the name of the person ultimately chosen. The 78-year-old then delivers it on his mouthpiece Truth Social, where else: J.D. Vance.
16.07.2024, 09:04
SDA
The outsider
Unlike Trump's vice president during his first term in office, Mike Pence, Vance does not have a long political career behind him. He is a newcomer in the capital Washington. He has only represented his home state of Ohio as a senator in Congress since 2023, but has made a lot of noise there over the past year and a half as a supporter of the right wing of the Republican faction. Trump, who himself went from political outsider to President of the United States, has therefore chosen a running mate in Vance who at least resembles him in this role.
Vance also shows similarities with Trump in his sharp rhetoric. This was evident when the 39-year-old blamed US President Joe Biden just a few hours after the assassination attempt on Trump at the weekend. It was to be expected that the attack, in which one Trump supporter was killed, two others were wounded and Trump was injured in the ear, would be politicized. However, Vance's post on Platform X came remarkably quickly.
The author
Unlike Trump, however, Vance comes from a working-class family. He grew up in Ohio in unstable circumstances and spent large parts of his childhood with his grandparents. After leaving school, he joined the military and served in Iraq. Vance, who always emphasizes the importance of education, then began his academic career - he graduated as a lawyer from the elite Yale University. It was there that he met his current wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, a daughter of Indian immigrants, with whom he has three children. He later worked as a venture capitalist, including in California's Silicon Valley.
During his time in the financial sector, Vance increasingly began to reflect on his own roots and the challenges of the white working class from which he came. These impressions flowed into his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy", which was a success in 2016. The bestseller, which was also made into a film, tells the story of a class that helped make Trump's election victory possible. The book not only brought Vance recognition, but also an opportunity to bring his political concerns into the public discourse.
The changeable man
A few years ago, Vance had few kind words for Trump. He referred to himself as a "Never Trumper" and called the Republican an "idiot". He is also said to have once compared Trump to Adolf Hitler in a private message. And Vance wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times: "Mr. Trump is unfit for the highest office in our land." However, Vance only really entered politics in 2021 and ran for the US Senate a year later.
In the party's internal primary campaign, Vance then threw his old reservations overboard and secured Trump's support - and ultimately victory over his internal party rivals. However, Vance probably owes his success in the election for the Senate post not only to his political message, but also to extremely generous donors he knows from his time on the West Coast. These include PayPal founder Peter Thiel, who donated millions to the election campaign. Either way, a Senate post is a remarkable start to a career for a political newcomer.
The hardliner
People in Germany and Europe are also likely to be looking forward to Trump's running mate. He exemplifies the conservative isolationism that has prevailed among the Republicans. This has set a precedent under Trump and his America-first policy and is the antithesis of the interventionist foreign policy of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.
Vance is particularly outspoken against the billions in US support for Ukraine, which is under attack from Russia. A few days before the war broke out, Vance told the right-wing agitator Steve Bannon: "I don't really care what happens to Ukraine, one way or the other." A good two years later, he wrote: "Biden's administration has no viable plan for how the Ukrainians can win this war. The sooner Americans face this truth, the sooner we can fix this mess and mediate for peace." Vance expects the Europeans to do more for Ukraine. At the same time, Vance backs Israel in the fight against the Islamist Hamas.
In terms of domestic policy, he is an opponent of abortion and has opposed enshrining the right to abortion in law or nationwide access to contraceptives. He is also largely aligned with the right wing of the party on other social issues. Vance calls for merit-based immigration and the completion of Trump's border wall. He also once said, "I'm skeptical of the idea that climate change is caused by humans alone."
The running mate
In announcing that Vance would be his running mate, Trump made it clear what he sees as the young senator's tasks. During the election campaign, Vance will focus on workers and farmers in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota, among others, he wrote. These so-called swing states are neither firmly in the hands of the Democrats nor the Republicans - and are therefore decisive in the election. Trump is therefore likely to hope that Vance will attract voters from America's white working class.
There has been much speculation about Trump's possible running mate in recent months. Observers had expected that Trump - himself an old white man - would choose a woman or a black man to gain access to certain groups of voters. However, it had already become clear in recent weeks that this would not be the case.
Vance was now the center of attention at the party convention in Milwaukee - at least until Trump showed up with a bandage on his ear. However, he has not yet revealed what he wants to stand for in the election campaign and possibly as vice president. His speech at the party convention is traditionally expected on Thursday night in Germany.
