MILWAUKEE: Donald Trump on Monday named right-wing Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate in the US presidential election, rewarding a former harsh critic who became one of his most loyal supporters in Congress.
Trump, 78, announced his choice on the first day of the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, an extravagance fueled by the attempted assassination of the former president.
Seen as the standard-bearer of a new kind of populism that has risen to prominence under Trump's leadership, Vance, 39, embraces the former president's isolationist, anti-immigration “America First” movement.
One of the least experienced vice presidential candidates in modern history, the senator is further to the right than the former president on many issues, including abortion, where he supports calls for federal legislation.
He rose to fame with his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” a bestselling account of his Appalachian family and modest Rust Belt upbringing that gave voice to rural working-class resentment in an abandoned United States.
Critics have pointed to numerous uncomfortable comments Vance, once the “Never Trump man,” has made in the past, including calling the billionaire a “moron,” “noxious” and “reprehensible” and suggesting he was “America's Hitler.”
Vance reinvented himself as a Trump loyalist in recent years, ultimately landing the former president's key endorsement in the 2022 Ohio Senate race.
Trump could have made his big reveal at any time in the days leading up to Milwaukee, but all his pre-convention plans were upended when a gunman tried to assassinate him at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
'He's supposed to be dead'
As the country still reels from images of a bloodied Trump being escorted off the stage of a rally, some 50,000 Republicans flocked to the shores of Lake Michigan for the four-day gathering, four months before the election against Democratic President Joe Biden.
The assassination attempt, which left one bystander dead and two others wounded, was expected to dominate proceedings, with Trump rejecting calls to postpone it and vowing to be “defiant in the face of evil.”
“I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be dead,” he told the New York Post in an interview aboard his plane to Milwaukee, during which he reportedly had a white bandage on his ear and a large bruise on his forearm where Secret Service agents grabbed him.
The Secret Service, facing criticism that it failed to protect Trump from the shooter, said it was “fully prepared” to ensure security at the convention.
Leading in several polls, despite having been convicted in the criminal case he carried out in New York to buy his silence, Trump radiates confidence.
Meanwhile, Biden, 81, is facing calls from his own side to drop out of the race over concerns about his age.
Trump scored another victory Monday when a judge dismissed the criminal case against him over allegations that he endangered national security by withholding top-secret documents after leaving the White House.
Message of unity
He immediately turned to Truth Social to ask for all legal proceedings against him to be dismissed, insisting once again that he was being persecuted for political reasons.
Trump told the Post he had “prepared an extremely tough speech” about Biden's “horrible administration” to deliver when he becomes the official Republican nominee on Thursday.
While some Republicans, including Vance, sought to blame Democrats' anti-Trump rhetoric for the attack, Trump also said he hopes to “bring our country together.”
Still, it would force him to rein in his instinct for score-settling, demonstrated by his cry to supporters to “fight back” in the seconds after Saturday's attack.
The Milwaukee gathering is largely designed in Trump's image, with digital signs spreading one message throughout the cavernous convention space: “Make America Great Again.”
The brand reflects their takeover of the game.
Trump, whose stature was diminished by his 2020 election defeat and the subsequent riot by his supporters at the Capitol, has spent much of the past four years reshaping Republican politics.
By installing his loyal supporters, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, atop the Republican National Committee, the billionaire has effectively crushed dissent.
The Milwaukee convention is also a family affair, as Lara and the former president's two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, will address the delegates.
