On July 15, former President, Donald Trump, made an announcement on Truth Social network stating that he would choose Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate. For those who had followed Vance when he rose to popularity around 2016, this would come as a shock. How can Vance, who once openly bashed Trump, even calling him “America’s Hitler,” become a public defender and endorser of the same man he openly detested? Two words: Political Gain.
In 2021, Vance deleted the critical tweets of Trump that he had made in 2016. Coincidentally, this was the year Vance started to prepare for his senate run. During his campaign, Vance would continue to backpedal on all the harsh opinions he had against Trump. “I think he was a good president, I think he made a lot of good decisions for people, and I think he took a lot of flak,” Vance stated.
The argument can be made that since his criticisms of Trump date back to 2016, it is understandable for him to have a change of heart. But with the radical nature of the Republican party, you can see more clearly why he changed his values. Vance went right in line with the rest of the elephant herd and saw Trump as the only way to win over the population. The snowball effect of power that he has is also called ‘The Trump Effect.’
Coming from someone who leans more towards the Democratic party, Vance was not a terribly misled, ignorant Republican that we tend to see in the party nowadays. He demonstrated through his vocal criticism towards Trump that you can still be a conservative and see Trump as a bad representation of the party.
That being said, it comes off as strange when Vance is so opinionated about him, yet he becomes the very thing he hated. The Trump Effect, as mentioned earlier, plays into this due to the grip that the former president has over the GOP. It is almost like there is no other way to win them over but to bite your tongue and not contest the leader. It is a shame to see someone go from calling their enemy an ‘idiot’ to then backing up said idiot when he makes false claims left and right.
Not only does he try to back up false rumors, but he himself is making them. In an interview with Dana Bash on CNN, Vance admitted to creating stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio allegedly “eating the pets” of their neighbors. It seems like Vance only pushed for Trump once he realized that this might be his only ticket to political influence.
