J.D. Vance: From Trump critic to vice-presidential hopeful
J.D. Vance is a political novice who has quickly become one of the leading figures in Donald Trump's camp and, according to election forecasts, is on his way to becoming the new vice president-elect. Not long ago, he criticized the former president, and now he criticizes support for Ukraine. In 2022, he said in an interview, "I really don't care what happens to Ukraine."
In his two years in the Senate, Vance has become known as a populist and a fan of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Before the country heard of him as a possible Trump successor, he was known for another role: the author of the bestseller "Hillbilly Elegy," published just before the 2016 presidential election.
Who is J.D. Vance?
James David Vance, then still a financier without declared political ambitions, described his upbringing in a poor coal mining area in Kentucky and his escape from the surrounding hopelessness. The book caused a sensation (it was translated into Polish and made into a movie by Netflix); after Trump's election as president, it was presented as an explanation for the populist billionaire's popularity.
At that time, Vance had not yet fallen under Trump's spell: he claimed he didn't like him and presented this politician as "cultural heroin" for impoverished Americans and a potential "American Hitler."
A leading advocate of "Trumpism"
Today, the 40-year-old senator from Ohio—who was one of the youngest vice-presidential candidates in U.S. history—is a leading advocate of Trumpism. In an interview with Fox News, his first after being elected as the vice-presidential candidate, he admitted he said "bad things" about Trump but assured he was wrong about him. He also praised the former president's achievements.
"By choosing Vance, Trump came as close as he could to choosing himself," commented conservative columnist Jim Geraghty of the "Washington Post." Other commentators assessed that Trump's choice seals the dominance of Trumpism in the Republican Party and is an expression of his confidence in his electoral chances.
Trump's risk was supposed to be Vance's views on abortion. In 2019, the politician converted to Catholicism and became one of the staunchest opponents of abortion. However, he recently softened his stance and supported Trump's position that the matter should be left to the states.
Vance is one of the most radical critics of globalization, free trade, and large corporations, and he is a populist advocating for state assistance, protectionism, and family-friendly policies. Presenting Vance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Ohio's Senate candidate Bernie Moreno emphasized that—like Trump—he would care for the "forgotten Americans."
"For J.D. Vance, 'America First' is not just a slogan; it's his North Star. (...) He knows what it means to live in poverty, to be forgotten by politicians in Washington. He will make sure no American is forgotten anymore," Moreno assured.
Even more than his economic views, Vance differs from the traditional party establishment on foreign policy issues. Although he is a hawk regarding China and Iran, the same cannot be said about his stance on Russia.
In less than two years in the Senate, the politician has become known as one of the biggest opponents of helping Ukraine. In an interview with former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, he stated he doesn't care what happens to Ukraine and mocked that for the money donated by the U.S., "ministers of (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky are buying themselves yachts." He also repeated the slogan often used by Kremlin propaganda that the U.S. rulers "want to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian."
Scandalous words about Ukraine
During one of the briefings before the Senate vote on the aid package for Ukraine, Vance told PAP that he does not want Putin to win, but it's more important for him to protect U.S. borders than Ukraine. In an interview with Fox News, he stated that the U.S. should bring the war to an end as soon as possible "so they can focus on the real problem, China."
In 2022, he told Steve Bannon in an interview: "I have to be honest with you, I really don't care what happens to Ukraine.
In February 2024, when Vance appeared for the first time at the Munich Security Conference, he told Politico that the U.S. needs to reassess its support for Ukraine and left the meeting with the Ukrainian delegation and other senators.
Like Trump and other politicians from his camp, Vance is also a supporter of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He has praised the Hungarian government's decisions regarding ideological changes in universities and claimed that the U.S. can learn a lot from Budapest. At the same time, he was the most outspoken critic of the current Polish government's actions among Washington politicians, describing changes in public media as "a real attack on democracy" and calling for U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to intervene.
"J.D. Vance belongs to an isolationist trend in American politics that we know from the past, before World War II. Back then, their slogan was 'America First'" - noted former U.S. ambassador to Poland Daniel Fried in a conversation with PAP. "This trend has always existed with us, but now it's gaining strength again" - assessed the diplomat.
