Who is JD Vance – Trump’s potential vice president?

Former US President Donald Trump and his new running mate JD Vance weren’t always allies. In 2016 Vance called Trump an “idiot” and an “American Hitler.” However, when Vance was running as Ohio’s senator in 2002, he apologised for bad mouthing the former president and is now one of his biggest supporters.

So what are his views? He wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico, and end illegal immigration. Vance also said at a conference in Washington last month he’s against US aid to Ukraine. Instead he says he would rather focus on defence against China.

And his view on the UK? Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington last week, Vance said: “What is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon, and we were like, maybe it’s Iran, you know, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it’s actually the UK, since Labour just took over.”

So why has Trump picked him as his potential vice president? According to Andrew Smith, a Political Science Professor at the University of New Hampshire, “Somebody like JD Vance would certainly do a lot to mobilise Donald Trump’s more rural, more blue-collar base.”

JD Vance grew up in a poor family in Southern Ohio, but went on to Yale Law School, founded his own venture capital firm and became the best-selling author of his memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy.’ Trump’s team hopes he will win over working class voters, as the Republicans look to gain support in the Midwest swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The vice presidential nominee might not appeal to some women voters though. He’s previously said that abortion should be illegal in almost every circumstance, taking an even harder line than Trump. But like his new boss, Vance believes each state should choose its own policies.

He also appeared to suggest during a talk in 2021 at a school in Southern California, women should stay in violent marriages for the sake of their children: “These marriages were fundamentally – they were maybe even violent but certainly they were unhappy and so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term. And maybe it worked out for the moms and dads, though I’m sceptical but it really didn’t work out for the kids of those marriages.”

If the 39-year-old is elected with Trump, he’ll be one of America’s youngest vice presidents, and he’ll be in a strong position to run for president in 2028.