Right-wing Ohio senator J.D. Vance was selected by Donald Trump on Monday to be his running mate in the US presidential race, rewarding a once-sharp critic who has grown to be one of his most devoted congressional allies.
On the opening day of the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, which was amplified by the former president’s attempted assassination, 78-year-old Trump revealed his choice.
Vance (39), who is viewed as the leader of a new populist movement that has emerged under Trump, supports the former president’s isolationist, anti-immigration America First platform.
The one-term senator, who supports proposals for federal law on abortion, is further to the right than the former president on many subjects. He is also one of the least experienced vice presidential candidates in modern history.
His 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” a best-selling narrative of his modest Rust Belt background and Appalachian family, helped him become well-known by giving voice to the dissatisfaction of the rural working class in America’s hinterland.
One-time “Never Trump guy” Vance has made a number of embarrassing statements in the past, which critics have brought up. These include labeling the billionaire a “idiot,” “noxious,” and “reprehensible,” as well as implying he was “America’s Hitler.”
In the aftermath of the Trump administration, Vance rebranded himself as a Trump loyalist and secured the former president’s crucial endorsement in the Ohio Senate contest of 2022.
Trump had plenty of time in the days leading up to Milwaukee to make his big reveal, but all of his preparations for the convention were derailed when a gunman opened fire on him during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
‘Supposed to be dead’
Four months before the election against Democratic President Joe Biden, some 50,000 Republicans flocked to the shores of Lake Michigan for a four-day event, as the nation was still in shock over the pictures of a bloodied Trump being taken from a rally platform.
With Trump rejecting requests to postpone and promising to be “defiant in the face of wickedness,” the attempted assassination, which resulted in one bystander’s death and two more’s injuries, was predicted to take center stage throughout the proceedings.
“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 from where Secret Service agents gripped him.
The Secret Service declared that it was “fully prepared” to guarantee security at the convention, despite backlash that it did not shield Trump from the gunman.
Despite being found guilty in his hush-money criminal case in New York, Trump is leading numerous surveys and projecting confidence.
Meanwhile, 81-year-old Biden is being urged to withdraw from the race by members of his own party due to age-related concerns.
A court dismissed the criminal case against Trump on Monday, which was another win for the president who was accused of endangering national security by retaining top-secret papers after leaving the White House.
Message of unity
He instantly took to Truth Social to demand that any legal actions against him be dropped, restating his insistence that he was being singled out for political purposes.
When Trump officially announces as the Republican nominee on Thursday, he has “prepared an extremely tough speech” on Biden’s “horrible administration,” according to the Post.
While some Republicans, such as Vance, attempted to attribute the incident to Democrats’ anti-Trump rhetoric, Trump said that he hoped to “unify our country.”
Nevertheless, he would still need to control his innate desire to exact revenge, as evidenced by his call for followers to “fight” in the moments following the attack on Saturday.
The Milwaukee event is mostly built in Trump’s likeness, with digital banners projecting the phrase “Make America Great Again” around the expansive convention center.
His control of the party is reflected in the branding.
After losing the 2020 election and his followers staged a riot at the Capitol, Trump’s stature declined, and he has devoted much of the previous four years on restructuring Republican politics.
The billionaire has essentially silenced critics by placing supporters, including his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, at the top of the Republican National Committee.
Lara will address delegates at the Milwaukee convention, along with the two eldest sons of the former president, Don Jr. and Eric. It’s a family affair.