Trump finally announces his VP pick

President Donald Trump named Sen. James David Vance (R-Ohio) Monday as his vice presidential pick.

Trump said in a statement Monday afternoon that after "lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio."

Vance is former Marine who was born in Middleton, Ohio; served with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing in the Iraq War; graduated from Yale Law School; served as a corporate lawyer; worked as a venture capitalist; penned the best-selling book "Hillbilly Elegy"; and then became a U.S. senator.

Vance was initially a fierce critic of Trump, telling NPR in 2016 that he couldn't stomach the then-Republican presidential candidate. While insisting in a 2016 New York Times op-ed that Trump was "unfit for our nation's highest office," Vance nevertheless understood the real estate magnate's appeal, noting:

To those humiliated by defeat, he promises we'll win again. To those discouraged by a government unable to care for the people it sent to war, he promises to take care of our veterans. To those voters furious at politicians who sent their children to fight and bleed and die in Iraq, he tells them what no major Republican politician in a decade has said — that the war was a terrible mistake imposed on the country by an incompetent president.

Having seen over time that Trump was not only willing but able to make good on many of his promises — including driving up wages, securing the border, and refraining from partaking in his predecessors' custom of starting at least one new war — Vance quickly came over to Trump's side.

Vance apologized to Trump on cable news in 2021, stating, "I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said in 2016 because I've been very open that I did say those critical things and I regret them, and I regret being wrong about the guy. I think that he was a good president. I think that he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak."

Vance also came to understand that Trump's America First agenda was not devoted to the protection of America as an idea but rather to the prioritization of the concrete realities that make up America, specifically its citizens and physical homeland.

In his recent speech at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., Vance said, "I'm most optimistic about the future of this movement and the future of our country ... because for the first time in a very long time, it is clear that the leader of the Republican Party is not some donor who's desperate for cheap labor, and it's not some random person who claims to speak for this or that constituency. The leader of the Republican Party is a guy who actually plans to put American citizens first — and that is Donald Trump."

In an interview last week with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Vance provided additional insights into his political conversion, noting, "Like a lot of other elite conservatives and elite liberals, I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration."

Trump clearly did not hold a grudge about Vance's earlier comments and misgivings, having endorsed him when he ran for the U.S. Senate in Ohio.

'He will not let you down. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!'

"Like some others, J.D. Vance may have said some not so great things about me in the past, but he gets it now, and I have seen that in spades," Trump said in his endorsement statement. "He's strong on the Border, tough on Crime, understands how to use Taxes and Tariffs to hold China accountable, will fight to break up Big Tech, and has been a warrior on the Rigged and Stolen Presidential Election. J.D. is a Marine who served in the Iraq War, a graduate of The Ohio State University, and earned a Law Degree from Yale — a great student."

"He will put America first," added Trump. "J.D. Vance has my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will not let you down. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Concerning the recent efforts by the media to dig up Vance's old critiques of Trump, Donald Trump Jr. said to CNN, "We're 100% confident that JD is America First to the core."

"No one in the Senate has been a stronger supporter of my father," added Trump Jr.

Outside the Trump family, Vance has also secured the confidence of other big names on the populist right.

Tucker Carlson told Politico earlier this year, "I feel like I've got a really good sense of senators, and he's by far the smartest and the deepest of any I've ever met."

"He's the one public intellectual that we have who’s in office, and it's incredibly powerful," said Steve Bannon. "This movement has needed someone like J.D.."

While there may have been numerous reasons behind Trump's decision to pick Vance as his running mate — including Vance's staunch pro-worker populism and the fact he does not hail from the same state — the former president's contrarian reflex may have been a factor.

After all, leftists, liberals, and even some nominal Republicans have urged Trump not to pick Vance.

'Picking Vance would allow the Biden campaign to sell the message that this is truly a MAGA ticket that needs to be defeated.'

USA Today columnist Dace Potas suggested Saturday that Trump should choose "a more traditional" and "boring" candidate — certainly not Vance.

"A radical VP choice, such as 39-year-old Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, could shift some of the heat away from Biden and refocus media and voter attention back onto Trump's MAGA message and the extreme politics that come with it," warned Potas.

"First, Vance is off-putting to principled GOP voters. I know because I am one, but the stats agree," said the self-described Republican columnist. "Second, picking Vance would allow the Biden campaign to sell the message that this is truly a MAGA ticket that needs to be defeated. Sure, Democrats will try this tactic anyway, but a more unity-focused Republican ticket with a traditional conservative would make this angle look even more preposterous to the right-leaning swing voters that Trump needs to win."

Instead of Vance, Potas recommended former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley as the ideal running mate.

Former Obama adviser and Democratic strategist David Axelrod suggested Vance should be disqualified for suggesting that Biden's inflammatory rhetoric set the stage for the attempted assassination on Trump.

After the shooting at the Trump rally Saturday, Vance wrote, "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Axelrod wrote, "If @JDVance1 is on the short list for VP, this Tweet, sent an hour after the assassination attempt in PA, ought to disqualify him in the eyes of the Trump campaign. Wrong vibe in that moment."

"Trump probably doesn't want a shoot-from-the-hip VP," added Axelrod.

Trump evidently had no problems proving Axelrod wrong again or disappointing the likes of Potas.

Trump noted further in his announcement of Vance as his VP, "J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association. J.D.’s book, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country. J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond."

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