This combination of images taken on July 15, 2024 shows Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Doral, Florida, on July 09, 2024 and US Senator JD Vance, Republican of Ohio, in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024 | Photo credit: AFP
Donald Trump on July 15 named right-wing Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate in the US presidential election, rewarding a harsh critic who was one of his staunchest supporters in Congress.
Mr Trump, 78, announced his choice on the first day of the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, a turbocharged extravaganza with an assassination attempt on the former President.
Seen as a standard-bearer for a new kind of populism emerging under Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance, 39, embraced the former President’s isolationist, anti-immigration America First movement.
One of the most experienced VPs in modern history, the one-term Senator is more to the right of the ex-President on many issues including abortion, where he embraced the call for federal legislation.
He made his name with his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” a best-selling account of his Appalachian family and humble Rust Belt upbringing, which gave voice to the rural, working-class resentment of the American left.
Critics have pointed to many awkward one-time comments “Don’t Trump people” Mr. Vance has made in the past, including calling the billionaire “stupid,” “noxious” and “reprehensible” and suggesting that “America’s Hitler.”
Mr. Vance reinvented himself as a Trump supporter in recent years and eventually won the former President’s primary endorsement in the 2022 Ohio Senate race.
Mr. Trump could have dropped the big opening at any point in the day before Milwaukee, but all the plans had the convention were upended when the gunman tried to live in a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
‘must die’
With the country still reeling from the image of a bloodied Mr Trump being escorted off the rally stage, some 50,000 Republicans descended on the shores of Lake Michigan for a four-day rally, four months before the election against Democratic President Joe Biden.
The assassination attempt – in which one person was killed and two others wounded – is expected to dominate the proceedings, with Mr Trump rejecting calls to postpone and vowing to be “opposed in the face of evil.”
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to die,” he said New York Post in the interview on the plane to Milwaukee, he reportedly had a white bandage on his ear and a large bruise on his arm from where the Secret Service agent grabbed him.
The Secret Service, which is battling criticism that it failed to protect Mr. Trump from shooters, said it was “fully prepared” to ensure security at the convention.
Leading in many opinion polls, despite being convicted in a money laundering case in New York, Mr. Trump exudes confidence.
Mr. Biden, 81, is facing calls from his own party to drop out of the race because of concerns about his age.
Mr. Trump scored another victory on July 15 as a judge dismissed the criminal case against him through accusations that he endangered national security by holding on top of secret documents after leaving the White House.
A message of unity
He immediately took to Truth Social to demand the dismissal of all legal cases against him, insisting again that he was being targeted for political reasons.
Mr Trump told the Post he had “prepared a very tough speech” about Mr Biden’s “terrible administration” when he became the official Republican nominee on July 18.
As some Republicans – including Mr Vance – sought to blame Democrats’ anti-Trump rhetoric for the attacks, Mr Trump also said he hoped to “unite our country.”
However, he had to curb his instincts to settle the score – demonstrated by his cries for supporters to “fight” in the seconds after the July 13 attack.
The Milwaukee meeting was largely designed in the image of Mr. Trump, with digital banners blaring the message in the cavernous convention arena: “Make America Great Once Again.”
Branding represents the takeover of the party.
With numbers dwindling after his loss in the 2020 election and subsequent unrest in the Capitol by his supporters, Mr Trump has spent much of the past four years reshaping Republican politics.
Installing loyalists including son-in-law Lara Trump at the top of the Republican National Committee, the billionaire effectively crushed dissent.
The Milwaukee convention was also a family affair, with Ms. Lara and the former President’s two eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, are all due to address the delegation.
