As we await JD Vance’s speech at the Republican National Convention tonight, it’s worth contemplating that Donald Trump’s selection of Vance as his running mate was pure Trump.
A normal politician would have picked former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Haley would presumably have broad appeal to non-Trumpy, suburban Republicans and stereotypical “soccer moms.” In lieu of Haley, choosing Sen. Marco Rubio or North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum might have been a tolerable compromise.
Vance — the 39-year-old senator from Ohio, famed “Hillbilly Elegy” author and former U.S. Marine — reinforces Trump’s default posture, which is to always be on the offense and anxious for the fray.
In the immediate wake of the assassination attempt on Trump’s life, Vance made the audacious, irresponsible and unsubstantiated claim that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Trump’s selection of Vance tells you all you need to know about Trump’s desire for “unity” —unless that word simply means “to agree with Trump.” But it also demonstrates how Trump has succeeded by defying conventional political wisdom.
Building a majority coalition, we were once told, requires both compromise and the wooing of recalcitrant constituencies. Nominees are supposed to move to the center in a general election. Running mates are supposed to “balance the ticket” or “deliver a state.” Likewise, in the wake of a near national tragedy, we are told that it’s time for unity and that we should lower the temperature.
When push comes to shove, Trump has almost always chosen to fight, rather than to unite. Vance’s selection is the latest example of this nature. And if the polls are to be believed, his adversarial inclination will work yet again.
It’s a foregone conclusion that Vance will have sharp elbows on the campaign trail. He will be a formidable adversary for Vice President Kamala Harris when the two meet on the debate stage. And if Trump wins back the presidency, Vance will continue the fight as vice president. What is more, he will fight for the things Trump cares about.
Unlike former Vice President Mike Pence — who refused to go along with Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election — Vance has indicated that he would have worked to keep Trump in power. “If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there,” Vance said.
Vance represents a dark side of the radical New Right, which blends populism and nationalism with cultural conservatism. In this regard, he could be viewed by liberals as being more sinister than Trump. Vance is close personal friends with Donald Trump Jr., and he was championed by far-right figures like Peter Thiel, Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.
Vance has lamented that, “We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies.” He has suggested that Biden is using fentanyl to kill MAGA voters, and has declared that he doesn’t care what happens to Ukraine.
And despite his Yale Law School pedigree, Vance has praised strongman Viktor Orbán’s approach to taming Hungary’s universities.
It goes without saying that these ideas are weird and esoteric. Not long ago, they would have been seen as more appropriate in a dorm room than on stage at a national political convention — much less a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Vance is at war against a broad array of opponents, including the post–World War II international consensus, the mainstream media, the left, lower-case “l” liberalism, the administrative state, Reagan conservatism, courts that dare rule against Trump and whatever else you got.
And should something happen to Trump, Vance is now poised to carry the fight into the future. This is, after all, what GOP voters want. Say what you will about Trump, but he was quick to recognize what the Republican base was clamoring for, and he delivered.
Indeed, Trump’s early apologists frequently invoked some version of the line “But he fights!” to rationalize his quarrelsome rhetoric and behavior.
Trump is a fighter. That’s what he knows. That’s who he is. Any feigned pivot to a kinder, gentler Trump will have a short shelf life.
Immediately after the assassination attempt, during that iconic moment when he raised his fist, the words Trump chose to chant were “Fight! Fight! Fight!” This was spontaneous; it was also telling.
By choosing JD Vance as his running mate, Trump is showing us that those weren’t merely words. They are his presidential campaign motto.
Matt K. Lewis is a columnist, podcaster and author of the books “Too Dumb to Fail” and “Filthy Rich Politicians.”