J.D. Vance once called Donald Trump “America’s Hitler,” likening him to “cultural heroin.” On Monday, the Ohio senator was named the former president’s running mate.
It’s a shrewd and calculated pick — a nod to Trump’s base. More than any of the other contenders, Vance’s selection shows that Trump wants to lock down the MAGA faithful and ensure they turn out — even if that means losing more moderate and independent voters. Vance’s rhetoric is at times harsher and hotter than Trump’s and his positions more extreme.
At 39, Vance is decades younger than the 78-year-old Trump, making the acid-tongued senator a young and vigorous inheritor of the MAGA movement — whenever that time should come. His selection also sends a clear message to the country that Trump is building a movement that will reshape the nation, not just for one term, but for the future.
That’s a chilling thought. Vance has boundless ambition. Political experience? Not so much. He’s a junior senator in his first elective office. He is opportunistic enough that should he win, Trump will need to watch his back for the next four years.
There has been no time — and little inclination — for Vance to project a more thoughtful, senatorial image. On Saturday, after the assassination attempt on Trump’s life, Vance was the only veep candidate on the former president’s shortlist to rush to the harshest conclusion possible, accusing President Joe Biden’s campaign of rhetoric that he claimed “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
There isn’t a shred of evidence to support that claim and, in fact, the shooter identified by authorities was a 20-year-old registered Republican.
Trump, who briefly spoke of unity after a bullet grazed his ear at the rally, appears to have already veered from that path, choosing a running mate who seldom reaches out to the other side unless it’s to deliver a throat punch. His rise has been nothing short of meteoric, thanks in large measure to Trump.
Vance first gained notoriety with the 2016 publication of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which traced his Appalachian roots and the country’s growing class divide. It was, in short, all about the “forgotten men and women” Trump references when politically necessary. But Vance saw Trump differently back then. A self-described Never-Trumper, Vance turned his scorching rhetoric on Trump, calling him “noxious” and “reprehensible.” He gained further acclaim — and a berth as a political commentator — for his extreme views on the newly elected president.
That all stopped around 2018, with one of the most abrupt and unlikely conversions in recent political memory. Soon, Vance had joined the MAGA chorus, transforming from attack dog to Trump acolyte. The reason soon became clear. Vance needed Trump’s endorsement to run for US Senate — badly. Trump, who sees ritual humiliation as a rite of passage to his circle, put Vance to the test. At a 2022 rally, Trump taunted the young upstart. “J.D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad,” Trump said. Vance got the endorsement, Trump got the satisfaction of making Vance eat his words.
A new relationship was born.
Vance has remained a devoted ally ever since. Like Trump he is pro-Israel and anti-Ukraine. He has embraced Trump’s protectionist position on tariffs.
On cultural issues Vance has indicated his willingness to consider a federal 15-week abortion ban, but ever-conscious of Trump’s shifting positions on the issue, has downplayed it. Well aware of how abortion rights have played to Democrats’ advantage, Trump has sought to distance himself from promises of federal action and insisted on stripping the promise of a federal ban out of the party’s platform — a bedrock position for decades.
Vance has shown he is nothing if not flexible, and doubtless will remain closely attuned to Trump’s shifting whims as he searches for what’s most politically expedient.
His appeal to MAGA loyalists is evident. Shortly after word of his selection was announced via Trump’s Truth Social, Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation — authors of the Project 2025 blueprint for a second Trump term — was delighted. “We were really rooting for him,” Roberts said to fellow Bloomberg columnist Mary Ellen Klas. “We couldn’t be happier.”
Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. She is a former member of the editorial board at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter.
