Beijing, July 16th (Editor Shi Zhengcheng) At about 3 am on Tuesday Beijing time, at the same time as the Republican National Convention passionately nominated Trump to run for the 2024 US election, former American president and Trump, who had just escaped assassination two days ago, announced: he chose Ohio Senator and the 39-year-old James David Vance (J.D.Vance) to be his running mate.

(Vance file photo, source: US Senate)

Trump announced on his public social media platform, Truth Social, that after a long period of contemplation and consideration of many other talented candidates, he has decided that Vance, Ohio Senator, is the most suitable candidate to take over the position of Vice President of the United States.

Trump introduced that Vance had a successful career in the technology and finance sectors in addition to writing "Hillbilly Elegy", which maps the lives of working-class whites in the U.S. Rust Belt region. Vance also had the experience of serving in the Marine Corps, and has studied at Ohio State University and Yale University after retiring from the army.

By the way, Vance's first-year mentor at Yale was Amy Chua, the author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother", who provided Vance with a lot of encouragement when he later wrote his memoir. Because "Hillbilly Elegy" was published during the 2016 US election, some critics said the book "explained why Trump could win". Well-known book recommender Bill Gates also wrote an article recommending the book called "From Coal Country to Yale" and said that Vance's book gave him new insights into poverty in the U.S.

According to the latest news before the publication, the National Republican Convention has formally nominated Trump & Vance as candidates for the 2024 US election.

(Source: US Republican Social Media)

Political newcomer & Trump supporter

It should be noted that when Vance first became famous in 2016, he harshly criticized Trump. So the transformation from a staunch opponent to a fervent supporter in recent years has also caused a lot of criticism.

However, according to Yuval Levin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a conservative political analyst, Vance's initial view of Trump was that he was worried that Trump would discredit all the ideas he was interested in, such as how to get the right wing to pay more attention to ordinary working-class families. But he later changed his mind and believed that Trump could push his ideas forward.

Today, Vance is already a core supporter and inheritor of Trump's conservative MAGA ideology.

The most intuitive evaluation often comes from competitors. After Trump announced he was running with Vance, the Biden campaign immediately came out blasting, saying that Vance will "do everything he can to support Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda.

US President Biden said on Monday: "On many issues, Vance is a clone of Trump, so I don't see any difference."

Compared to other potential candidates, Vance is also an exceptionally young choice, born in 1984, he will not be 40 years old until next month. In fact, he has only been in politics for just over two years- In the 2022 Ohio Senate election, Vance, who was endorsed by Trump, successfully won. This is also Vance's entire political resume to date.

Although it is too early to consider Vance as a leading candidate for the 2028 U.S. presidential election, some American media have commented that Trump's choice of Vance, who has a similar political image to himself, is to hand the key to the "MAGA Kingdom" to his successor. Also, because Vance's image is very "tough" and not pleasing to moderate voters, this selection is seen as Trump having great confidence in his ability to win without playing it safe.

According to media reports, in the process of Trump choosing Vance, Trump's son, Junior Trump, former Fox anchor Tucker Carlson, and Vance's former boss & well-known technology investor Peter Thiel played a key role in pushing for his selection.

Finally, it should be noted that after winning the Republican nomination, Vance does not need to resign from his job as Senator immediately. If he can win the election with Trump in November this year, he only needs to resign before being sworn in on January 20th next year. Then Ohio Governor Mike DeWine will need to decide on the re-election issue.

Editor/Somer