Saturday, November 30

Who is JD Vance, Trump's vice president who in the past had harshly criticized him, calling him “America's Hitler.”

JD Vance will be the new vice president of the United States.

Last July, Donald Trump chose the senator from Ohio to compete in the elections on November 5, in which the Republican became the boss of the White House for a new period..

39 years old, Vance belongs to the Trumpist wing in the Upper House. He gained a lot of popularity after the publication of his book Hillbilly Elegya best-seller which combines his memoirs with the essay on poverty in white US society.

Therefore, it was understood that his presence on the ticket with Trump could be his best option to connect with white working-class voters.

“After long deliberations and reflection, and taking into account the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the best person to assume the office of vice president of the United States is Senator JD Vance of the great state of Ohio,” Trump told the make the announcement at that time.

Getty Images: Senator Vance and his wife were applauded upon arriving at the Republican National Convention last July.

Vance, who He joined the Never Trump movement during the 2016 elections, he changed his position in 2022 at the time of starting his political career.

By nominating him, Trump hoped that Vance, being a young candidate, would refresh his Republican campaign and lead a new generation of Republicans loyal to him within the party.

Books, venture capital and politics

Vance, born in Middletown, Ohio, in 1984, as James David Bowman, was raised by his maternal grandparents – in a white working class family due to his mother’s addiction problems and the absence of his father.

The now-future vice president was part of the Marines and served in Iraq before going to Ohio State University, where he graduated in Political Science and Philosophy, then going on to Yale Law School and ending up as an equity investor. venture, working especially in Silicon Valley.

Baptized as a Catholic in 2019, Vance declares himself against the right to abortionalthough he supports Trump’s view that the matter should be left to each state.

In 2016, he wrote a successful book of memoirs and essays, Hillbilly Elegywhere he narrates his own life and upbringing in a working class family in the Rust Belt (rust belt) of the United States.

Getty Images: The senator from Ohio is the author of the bestseller Hillbilly Elegy.

In that book, Vance took a decidedly conservative view: He described his friends and family as chronic spenders, dependent on welfare benefits and, for the most part, unable to make it on their own.

The success of the book led to the story being made into a Netflix film of the same name with Amy Adams and Glenn Close.

Hillbilly Elegy made him not only an author of bestsellersbut also in a renowned television commentator that talked about Donald Trump’s relationship with white working-class voters in the US.

However, at that time, I didn’t hesitate to criticize him.

“What (Trump) is doing is giving people an excuse to point the finger at someone else, at Mexican immigrants, at trade with China, at Democratic elites or anything else,” Vance said in 2016.

That same year, he wrote privately to a contact on Facebook: “I go back and forth between thinking that Trump is a cynical asshole… or that He is America’s Hitler.“.

Getty Images: Vance even compared Trump to Hitler in 2016.

Once Vance joined the Senate race in 2022, he apologized to Trump and changed his position, winning the support of the former president for Congress.

In the Senate he has been a reliable conservative vote for the now president-elect. He backed populist economic policies and gained clout as one of Congress’s biggest skeptics of aid to Ukraine.

Vance has become an increasingly important player in the world of politics. Make America Great Again (the campaign slogan with which Trump managed to return to the White House) and has been almost completely added to the Republican’s agenda.

Getty Images: Vance became an ally of Trump, even though he initially rejected him.

Given his short experience in the Democratic-led chamber, the bills the next vice president has promoted they have rarely advanced and they tend to send more messages than change policies.

Earlier this year, Vance introduced bills to withhold federal funds for universities where there were camps or protests over the war in Gaza, as well as for universities that employ undocumented immigrants.

Showcasing both his warmongering in foreign policy and his experience in finance, Vance introduced legislation in March that would prevent the Chinese government from accessing US capital markets if it does not respect international trade law.

With this agenda, in a short time Vance became a increasingly important actor among Republicans, rising as an influential voice of the trumpism in Washington.

According to media such as the magazine The New Yorker and the newspaper The New York Times, Vance’s run for vice president was supported by Silicon Valley heavyweights who identify as libertarians, such as Elon Musk, David Sacks (co-founder of PayPal), and Peter Thiel (also co-founder of PayPal).

Vance is seen as an important figure for conservatives in the cultural struggles dividing the United States, especially against the movement identified as woke up.

He is also seen as someone who lends intellectual weight to Trumpism and who may eventually become a successor.

Getty Images: JD and Usha Vance married in 2014. They have three children.

Who is his wife, Usha Vance?

The future vice president of the United States is married to Usha Vance. The two met as students at Yale Law School in the 2010s and married in 2014.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, she was born in California and raised in the suburbs of the city of San Diego.

She is currently a trial attorney at a San Francisco law firm and has clerked for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, conservative Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

During the campaign, Vance He often praised his wife. for her support in his career and considered her his “Yale spiritual guide” when they were classmates.

In an interview on Fox News in May, Usha said, “I believe in JD and I really love him, so we’ll see what happens in our lives.”

The couple has three children: two boys, Ewan and Vivek, and a girl named Mirabel.

BBC:

Why Trump chose JD Vance

In 2016, when Donald Trump chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate, it was widely seen as an effort to court evangelical Christian voters who might have been cautious about supporting Trump, a married former Democrat. thrice.

The election of JD Vance also offered insight, albeit a different one, into Trump’s campaign strategy and possibly also sheds light on how he will govern now that he returns to the White House.

Trump knew that These elections would be won or lost in a handful of industrial states in dispute in the Midwest.

A native of Ohio, Vance was elected as a senator after the publication of his memoirs, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he talks about his working-class upbringing and how it affected his politics and worldview.

With his record and the results already on the table, it’s not strange to think that Vance’s imprint could have connected with the kind of white working-class voters who narrowly handed those states to Trump in the 2016 election and who could also have now been key to his victory.

Trump, in fact, made that goal clear when he announced his decision to share the ticket with Vance, writing that Vance would focus “strongly on the people for whom he fought so brilliantly, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota. and much beyond.”

In all of those states, except Minnesota, Trump won this Tuesday’s elections, with Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan being key for the Republican to take advantage of Kamala Harris.

Likewise, in July Trump praised Vance’s military service and his pedigree as a law school student at a prestigious university.

At only 39 years old, Vance offered a youthful counterpoint to the candidates leading both presidential lists.

Trump’s election now places him at the forefront of a new generation of Republicans.

With the victory in his pocket, in addition, Vance will likely figure in the conversation about the Republican Party’s presidential nomination for 2028.

BBC:

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