JD Vance was supposed to be a trump card for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Was this an opportunity for the former American president to win over new voters and keep the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement going? Not really… Worse still, this 39-year-old elected official could become a drag, risking derailing the Republican clan. Indeed, the Ohio senator has seen his popularity rating plummet in recent weeks. The reason is a resurgence of several videos and messages that have caused a scandal.
So much so that some American media are wondering about his near future: Will Donald Trump change his running mate and fire JD less than 100 days before the American presidential election? According to the New York Magazine, There is nothing “technically” that would prevent the Republican National Committee from getting rid of J.D. Vance.
For the New York Timesthe nomination of JD Vance as running mate reflects an “overconfidence” that Donald Trump’s camp could pay dearly for in the November 5, 2024 election. Already on July 24, the Washington Post headlined: “Could Republicans have remorse with JD Vance?” In the same vein, the American magazine The Week also questions this Republican choice: “Has the future heir to the MAGA movement become a drag on the very ticket he was supposed to energize, or does Vance remain a powerful force for Trump on the campaign trail?” In the meantime, JD Vance will accompany Donald Trump to Atlanta, Georgia, for yet another political event this Saturday, August 3.
Yet everything seemed written in advance: the Ohio senator was supposed to have Vice President Kamala Harris in front of him as a foil. After two remarkable weeks for Donald Trump and his advisers, the clan now appears to be a victim of this success. With Joe Biden’s withdrawal, the ground is shaking under the Republicans’ feet. And JD Vance did not fail to show his concern: in front of donors, he admitted that Kamala Harris’ entry into the race for the White House was a “sucker punch” for the Republican camp, an expression that can be translated into French as “a blow to the head” or a “dirty blow”.
Controversies galore
An intervention that recalls other rather bland or embarrassing speeches by JD Vance. Like when he tries to make humor during a meeting: “For Democrats, everything is racist. I drank a soda yesterday, another one today, I’m sure they’ll call me racist.” Result: he receives a rain of mockery on social networks. On the political front, the Ohio elected official multiplies the setbacks. He “falls in the polls” and “accumulates controversies”, like his past statements about Democrats being “crazy cat ladies without children,” he analyzes The Guardian, taken back by International mail.
For the New Yorkerthese anti-feminist statements reflect a pro-natalist ideology embodied by JD Vance. And this sentence from the depths of the Internet has provoked a deluge of criticism. “I have nothing against cats or dogs,” defends the main person concerned, which risks alienating part of the female electorate.
A political transformation that raises questions
More recently, it is the political transformation of the running mate that has interested the American media, after the publication of emails from a former friend in which Vance called Trump a “morally reprehensible human being” and said: “I hate the police.” The more than 90 messages sent to the New York Times, dated largely from the period 2014-2017. Emails that add to a set of already existing evidence showing the change in ideological direction of JD Vance and proving that he was not always a “far-right warrior”. Among the only good news that the Ohio elected official was able to benefit from: the fact that the Associated Press headlined one of its dispatches: “No, JD Vance did not sleep with a couch”, a response to a controversy that shows the level of the American campaign. For its part, the New Yorker warns: “Vice presidents may not make the presidency, but they can certainly break a lot of things.” And J.D. Vance seems set to do just that.