Trump’s heir: Why JD Vance is a bold choice for running mate

He once called Donald Trump “America’s Hitler” — now he’s the VP pick. Here’s what led to JD Vance’s stunning transformation.

America’s vice presidents have described the job as “the most insignificant office” ever invented, “not worth a bucket of warm piss”, and “about as useful as a cow’s fifth teat”.

“In this I am nothing,” the first vice president John Adams said, “but I may be everything.”

That is the situation JD Vance now finds himself in, chosen by Donald Trump as his vice presidential pick two days after the election front-runner was very nearly assassinated.

Ohio senator JD Vance and his wife Usha Chilukuri Vance look on as he is nominated for the office of Vice President on the first day of the Republican National Convention. Picture: Getty Images

Rarely has the president’s number two been so important. This is accentuated even further by the fact that Trump, if he wins in November, can only serve for four years. Vance is now his anointed successor at the 2028 election, if not sooner in the event of another disaster.

This context is what makes the 39-year-old such a bold choice.

In his first presidential run, Trump selected Mike Pence, the Indiana governor who was supposed to win over Republicans who were unsure about their controversial celebrity candidate. He could have made a similar pick this time with North Dakota governor Doug Burgum. In Vance, however, Trump swung for the fences.

The Yale-educated former Marine has used his 18 months as Ohio’s representative in the Senate to try and position himself as Trump’s ideological heir.

That is most notably true on foreign policy, with Vance injecting what his supporters see as intellectual heft in Trump’s anti-interventionist views. For instance, he has been a hardline opponent of American aid for Ukraine, arguing that it will have to give up some of its land to end the war and that such a concession would not embolden further Russian military action.

The Yale-educated former Marine has positioned himself as Donald Trump’s ideological heir. Picture: AFP

The prospect of his arrival in the White House – rather than a Republican with more traditional views about the importance of America’s support for its allies – will only intensify Volodymyr Zelensky’s concerns about the implications of a Trump victory. The Australian government may well wonder what it means for the Indo-Pacific region as well.

Vance is also a fierce defender of some of Trump’s worst impulses.

He has said that if he were in Pence’s place in 2020 – when Trump tried to force him to block the certification of his election defeat, sparking death threats in the January 6 riot – he would have used his vice presidential power to ignore the legitimate results.

JD Vance is a staunch defender of Donald Trump’s worst impulses. Picture: AFP

Senator JD Vance was a Trump critic before entering politics. Picture: AFP

And while Trump is pushing a message of unity in the wake of his brush with death, Vance’s reaction was more in line with Trump’s most hardline allies, including his son Donald Jr.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance said.

“That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Vance’s loyalty to Trump is shocking when you consider that he did not even vote for him in 2016. Before that election, he mused to friends that he could be “America’s Hitler”, declared that he was “unfit for our nation’s highest office” and even compared him to “cultural heroin”.

“He makes some feel better for a bit,” Vance wrote.

“But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realise it.”

Cynics say that Vance’s transformation is borne solely out of ambition. Whether or not that is true, he is certainly ambitious. His journey here – from a childhood ravaged by addiction and poverty, powerfully told in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy – is an incredible US success story.

And that is the potential downside for Trump. A Vice President Vance would immediately face unusually intense scrutiny with the 2028 election in mind. That may not go down well with a boss who is notoriously unwilling to share the limelight.

Originally published as Trump’s heir: Why JD Vance is a bold choice for running mate