Eight years ago, during the 2016 US presidential campaign, JD Vance harshly criticised Donald Trump, referring to him in public as a “moron” and “reprehensible” and in private as “America’s Hitler”.
By Monday, when Trump announced Vance as his vice president, Vance had become a staunch Trump supporter despite his limited company with other Republicans. Trump’s closest allies include former “never Trumper” James David Vance.
Critics on both sides question whether Vance, the author of the popular book Hillbilly Elegy and a freshman senator from Ohio, is truly motivated by principle. But Trump and his advisers see Vance’s metamorphosis as sincere: a political convert who shares many of Trump’s views: isolationist and economic nationalist rather than interventionist and neoliberal.
Vance's stance against providing U.S. assistance to Ukraine in its war with Russia has been welcomed by Trump's conservatives, though it has not been welcomed by some of his colleagues in the Senate. Reuters reported.
The selection of Vance, who was born into a poor family in southern Ohio, may prove more appealing to Trump in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, while his conservative views could lose moderates.
Vance served in the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School and had a successful career as a venture capitalist before writing the 2016 book “Hillbilly Elegy,” which explored the social decay of his hometown and Trump’s appeal to poor white voters.
Vance was initially an outspoken critic of Trump, condemning him publicly and privately, but his loyalties shifted over time, allowing Trump to endorse him for his 2022 Senate bid. That stance on trade and immigration policies marked a transition from criticism of Trump’s personality to the policies he championed.
