Former US President Donald Trump, a candidate in the November 5, 2024 presidential election, announced Monday on his social network Truth Social that Senator James David Vance would be his running mate.
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Barely appointed by Donald TrumpJD Vance is cheered by the crowd at the Republican convention, reports our special correspondent in Milwaukee, David Thomson. Army veteran, Yale graduate, at 39, JD Vance is youth. It is also an American story, that of a working-class kid from Rust Belt deindustrialized, raised by a violent and drug-addicted mother and became a corporate lawyer and then senator from Ohio, his home state, a key state in the Trump campaign strategy.
JD Vance tells his story in his autobiographical book that made him famous in 2016, Hillbilly Elegy (An American Odein French), a bestseller with 3 million copies sold and an adaptation on Netflix which made him the embodiment of this declassed white America.
Yet at the time, Vance was anti-Trump. He called him toxic to the working class and compared him to Hitler during the 2016 campaign. Comments he has since apologized for in order to be elected as a senator from Ohio in 2022 with Trump’s support. He is now said to be very close to Don Junior, Trump’s eldest son. He is someone who already had a somewhat populist discourse, but who was often interpreted as being rather left-wing. And in fact, he corresponds a little to this base that was formerly rather left-wing and has moved right. “, analyzes Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, professor at Sciences-Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye and specialist in the United States.
“ He has a rather racist speech. »
Since then, his loyalty to the Republican candidate has been beyond doubt. He has a fairly racist discourse, we can say since he is anti-immigrant, and especially on conspiracy ideas like the theory of the great replacement.points out Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy. He really bought into Donald Trump’s narrative and it worked out very well for him. Since he became pro-Trump, he’s been completely pro-Trump. I would say he’s more Trump than Trump himself in some ways. » Vance went to defend Donald Trump at his trial in New York to denounce a political witch hunt led by the Democrats. An hour after the assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday, he directly accused Joe Biden of being responsible. Joe Biden who calls JD Vance a clone of Trump in a younger age. The Democratic camp considers him sometimes as an opportunist, sometimes as ” an exact copy » by Donald Trump.
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