JD Vance is a convert to the Trump religion, and that might be exactly what Trump needs to win

Republican presidential candidate, former president Donald Trump (L) and Republican Vice Presidential candidate, Senator JD Vance on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

Just when you thought Donald Trump had reached peak branding at the weekend, he goes one better with his choice of JD Vance as his vice-presidential running partner.

Say what you like about Vance – he’s not a woman, he’s very white, he’s not particularly handsome, heck, he’s not even much of politician – he still looks like a pretty good pick for the Trump campaign.

And that’s because of, rather than in spite of, the fact he is a convert to Donald’s world view.

Just as you could not have scripted the events of the past few days – the assassination attempt, THAT photograph, the unity call from Trump – so you could not have anticipated the US will almost certainly end up with a vice-president who a minute or three ago was arguing Trump was the problem.

But here Vance is, more populist and conservative than Donald himself, yet proof that educated, rational Americans can weigh the evidence and decide Trump is the answer.

Here’s Vance, whose hard-scrabble backstory, told in his 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, and in the 2020 Ron Howard-directed movie of the same name, makes him a whole lot more relatable than the owner of Mar-a-Lago.

Donald Trump (L) and JD Vance at the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

And here’s Vance at the Republican National Convention – millennial, male, a former marine, with a beautiful wife of Indian heritage, a law degree from Yale, a former venture capitalist with fundraising chops to boot.

Covering all the bases, especially Trump’s base which is surely reassured there will no backing away from the MAGA project, whatever The Donald’s rhetoric about coming together as one nation.

As retrograde as it may be for Trump to choose a white male man over a woman, he has surely read the mood of an electorate that is now invited to see leadership in terms of strength, physical courage and, yes, a battlefield.

Does anybody really think the country is ready for a female president if Trump does not last the distance? Could Nikki Haley compete with the image, not only of a defiant Trump, but the square-jawed, all-American Secret Service agent at his side? Could any woman? Vance may be less photogenic than some of those who rushed to Trump’s side at Butler, but he is probably the right gender for this moment in American politics.

None of which is to suggest that Vance is a good pick for US democracy.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Picture: AFP

Ohio senator JD Vance. Picture: Getty Images

He is articulate but his confrontational rhetoric – evident when he blamed the Biden campaign for inspiring the shooter – is not what the country needs. He is against abortion, for example, and has made no secret of his belief Ukraine is not America’s problem. As The Wall Street Journal notes: “Perhaps he will shed his isolationist impulses in office, but they’re worrisome.” Plus, his lack of executive experience suggests a Trump White House will struggle with the key task of governing.

But Vance’s youth, his “rags to riches” story, and his willingness to switch sides could well appeal to some undecided voters.

He told Fox News that in 2016, he had bought into the “media’s lies” about Trump but had changed his mind when he saw the “peace and prosperity” Trump delivered. The idea Trump was a threat to democracy “was a joke”.

Trump looks like a shoo-in in November but, just in case, Vance offers a marketable version of that old line that says, when the facts change, I change my mind.