Who will be Trump's running mate? (J. D. Vance Has Been Chosen)

Now, of course, when he got into office he turned over economic policy to free market zealots like Russ Vought and Americans for Tax Reform. But, for reasons I cannot personally fathom, his voters who feel left behind by the modern American economy never fully lost faith in him.

These are low-information voters who don’t actually look at what Trump does, as long as he says that he is going to do nice things for them, they trust him implicitly. After all, someone who expresses all the bigotry and racism that they feel is implicitly trustworthy.

Any attack on Vance involving what his views on Trump used to be will fail. The response will be that Trump is so righteous and powerful he can convert his greatest of enemies into allies. Vance will be his “Saul into Paul” example.

By an astonishing coincidence, I was actually getting ready to make the same comparison for a different reason: that Vance changed his tune because — like the guy who suddenly realized he could use the guy he’d been railing against, by talking that talk — well, in a word, opportunism.

It’s less about attacking Vance on his flip-flopping–though I deny that that will be totally ineffective. It’s the delicious opportunity to use Vance’s past words against Trump.

Yes. And if Agent Orange wins this election, he better be prepared to eat a shit sandwich every day he’s VP, because it’s not going to be any different for him than it was for Pence.

I think DJTJ asked his barber to give him the “Ellis from Die Hard”.

Vivek Ramaswamy would have been even more loyal than Vance. However, Trump doesn’t like being outshone, and Ramaswamy is popular, while Vance is, like Mike Pence, boring.

Just tuning in briefly to the convention and I notice that Vance is taller than Trump. When they are next to each other Trump appears smaller and weaker. Choosing Vance may have been a bit of a mistake for Trump purely in the image department. I also don’t think it will help with women. Did he really say that women should stay in violent relationships for the sake of the children? Democrats should be running with that.

OK I just checked and he is apparently only 5’7” so I don’t know what I am seeing.

Yes. Yes, he did. I remember it well, because I learned that Travelers Insurance Company gave him a healthy campaign contribution after he said it, and because of that, I canceled my homeowner’s and vehicle insurance with them. I wrote and told them why, too.

According to this 2022 Vice article, Vance said the following during a 2021 speech at a Christian high school in California:

That’s one point of view.

I’ll share that I was the child of a marriage so violent, the fights often involved sharp objects earnestly brandished.

When my parents finally parted, we children cried and cried. With relief.

As an aside, I think this makes him the first bearded major-party candidate since the Hughes/Fairbanks Republican ticket of 1916.

IMO, the reason Trump won in 2016 was because Clinton had no credibility (or negative credibility) among union members in Rust Belt states. Trump made some useless promises but it was better than what they perceived from Clinton.

Biden won them back–enough to win, at any rate–because he actually had some working-class credibility. Still close, but enough.

Trump may have Ohio in the bag, but Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are still up for grabs. And Vance has–by Republican standards–at least a tiny amount of working-class credibility. For example:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/blow-biden-teamsters-consider-no-endorsement-2024-race-2024-07-15/

He also praised Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance as one of several lawmakers that “truly care about working people.”

Laugh it up, but IMO this is why Vance was chosen. The other possibilities were all worse with respect to that. He doesn’t have to swing many votes.

Just thinking that if I were going to be Trump’s VP, the first question I would ask myself is “can I murder this guy before he murders me?”

Vance has the look of a guy who answered ‘yes’ to the above question.

Oh, boo hoo you. I’m not shedding a tear over poor JD Vance, who is a loathsome individual.
I do get exasperated by the absolute circle jerk this place can be in desperately convincing each other that Trump has made an enormous tactical blunder. Vance having previously said bad things about Trump won’t hurt the ticket any more than when Bush accused Reagan of “voo doo economics”. And as much as the smartest/hippest here may be able to see through the guy, he absolutely has the credibility and the rhetoric to talk to working class households about the frustration and anguish they feel about the economic squeeze they’re undergoing. He will also be the only veteran on either ticket, which I’m sure the campaign will put front-and-center in his biography.

So yeah, I’m with @Dr.Strangelove. Laugh it up, but this is a smart pick by Trump.

Since about 2016, I’ve often said that … I simply cannot get into the minds of the MAGAs.

But Trump can. It’s definitely his superpower.

Vance will say anything. The only clear thing about his position is that it amounts to “what will get attention for JD Vance.” If the political winds blew such that he’d get votes by marching in BLM demonstrations he’d volunteer to have the T-shirts printed.

The guy is currently on his third surname; he’ll change anything to suit the situation.

The first time his name was changed when he was a toddler and has step father adopted him. The second appears to be when he was a teenager to go to his mother’s maiden name. Get real…

Specifically, his second name change was to honor his maternal grandparents who raised him.

Looks like Vance Derangement Syndrome is already setting in. . .

It’s derangement to not like a guy that explicitly said he’d help trump commit a coup…