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Jon Lieber, Eurasia Group's head of research and managing director for the firm's coverage of United States political and policy developments, shares his perspective on US politics from Washington, DC.
President Trump has made his VP selection, JD Vance, Senator from Ohio, a 39-year-old who rose to prominence as the author of a book explaining the troubles of the white working class who voted for Trump in 2016, to a much broader population of Americans who were at the time, struggling to understand how Trump pulled off his surprising victory. Vance then reinvented himself as an investor and then a prominent Trump critic, warning about Trump's dangers to America, and saying that he is America's Hitler. And then went on to reinvent himself yet again as a populist champion of the working class, running for Senate in the seat he ended up winning.
Vance is obviously extremely smart. He's a Yale law graduate, and what he's going to bring to the Trump campaign is to complement the populist energy that President Trump brings. Vance has been an outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine, he has been somebody who's questioned how much the Republican Party has done over the years for the US corporate community, meaning he's going to bring probably an anti-trade and even potentially a tax-hiking voice into the White House. And he's going to instantly become a target for the campaign of President Joe Biden, who will happily pull out all of Vance's old quotes criticizing Donald Trump, even though Vance now credibly says he's been converted to Trumpism.
They're also going to try to attempt to tie Vance to Project 2025, which is a white paper introduced by the Heritage Foundation that introduces all of Trump's plans that he plans to do as president, many of which will be very closely aligned with the persona that J.D. Vance dug out in the Senate. Now, I should also say that persona has been bipartisan at times, as Vance has teamed up with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren on several populist causes, including cracking down on big banks. So, Vance is probably one of the more interesting people in American politics today. He's young enough to be a credible presidential candidate in four years at the end of a second Trump term, and he's going to be a lightning rod for controversy.
Thanks for watching and stay tuned for more on the Republican National Convention this week.