VP pick Vance poised to take Trumpism into the future
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[July 17, 2024]
By James Oliphant
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - When Senator J.D. Vance takes the stage at the
Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Wednesday, he will be
viewed by many Republican Party faithful as the newly anointed inheritor
of Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement.
Trump's choice of the 39-year-old Vance, a fire-breathing populist, as
his vice-presidential pick signaled the former president, 78, views his
MAGA movement as something that could stretch beyond his own time in
power. If Trump wins the Nov. 5 presidential election he can serve only
until 2029.
Vance's task on Wednesday and in ensuing months will be to reassure
those dubious about his MAGA credentials of his bona fides while
bringing voters skeptical of Trump into the fold, having once compared
Trump to Adolf Hitler before his conversion to stalwart Trump defender.
Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative commentator, believes Vance,
who rose to national fame after writing a bestselling memoir "Hillbilly
Elegy," can thread that needle.
"J.D. Vance can speak Trump to people who don’t understand Trump,"
Erickson told Reuters in an interview. "He can explain his agenda."
That MAGA agenda, he said, is largely a loose form of economic populism
that focuses on the middle class and favors more government involvement
in the economy and seeks to avoid foreign alliances and entanglements.
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The MAGA movement itself is both an exercise in media branding and an
all-purpose term to define Trump's diehard supporters. They include
those who nurse deep-seated racial grievance and many who follow his
lead on policy matters regardless of where they fall on the ideological
spectrum.
“In Trump's hands it's just instincts and impulses, some of which emerge
from white grievance,” said Damon Linker, a political science lecturer
at the University of Pennsylvania. “But in Vance's (formulation), it's
much bigger than that. Or at least he wants it to be.”
Vance, a graduate of Yale Law School and a former venture capitalist, is
now well positioned to help mold Trump’s often scattershot vision into
something coherent for the future, he said.
Where Trump often traffics in simple but memorable phrases, Vance can
delve deeply into policy nuances at conservative forums and in extended
interviews with the media.
"He does bring an intellectual firepower to whatever MAGA stands for,"
Erickson said.
That could be crucial because Trump's movement has never been
ideological, but based on the instincts of Trump himself, Linker said.
Without the right successor, it could die with him.
The question for Trump's movement going forward is whether somebody with
less charisma than Trump, a former reality TV star, "can communicate
this message in a way that’s effective," said Suzanne Schneider, a
historian who studies conservatism at Oxford University.
Trump's critics are doubtful and say the force of his celebrity and
personality has given him influence that would be nearly impossible for
a would-be successor to replicate.
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![](../images/071724PIX/news_w50.jpg)
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald
Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance applaud on
Day 2 of the Republican National Convention (RNC), at the Fiserv
Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., July 16, 2024.
REUTERS/Callaghan O'hare/File Photo
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SENATE FRESHMAN
Elected to the U.S. Senate less than two years ago, Vance has spent
much of his brief political career arguing the government needs to
do more to assist the working class by advancing policies that boost
wages.
Those policies, according to Vance, can take the form of limiting
illegal immigration, restricting imports, raising the minimum wage
and cracking down on corporate largesse - positions that aren't
entirely in line with Republican orthodoxy but track Trump's MAGA
agenda closely.
Last year, Vance partnered with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren
on legislation that would penalize bank executives when their
institutions fail.
Some at the convention viewed Vance's selection as a sign the MAGA
movement has advanced to where Trump can eventually pass the baton
to others.
“I see the selection of J.D. Vance as the continuation of Donald
Trump’s policies, of America First policies,” said Chuck Hernandez,
chair of the Chicago Republican Party. “We’re at the point where we
needed to mature and go and continue.”
Vance isn't alone. An entire new generation of MAGA acolytes could
be scrambling for power and influence when Trump leaves the stage.
Potential rivals include Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, the tech entrepreneur
who ran for president this year and enjoyed a spurt of popularity
among Trump’s base, Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders, 41, who served
in the Trump White House as press secretary, and perhaps Trump’s
son, Donald Trump Jr., 46, who has worked steadily to make himself a
behind-the-scenes kingmaker in the party and who strongly backed
Vance.
“There is an entire movement behind him full of people who are
younger and smarter and will be better and more efficient in
governing,” Schneider said.
Carla Sands, a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark and a fundraiser
for Trump who attended the convention as a delegate from
Pennsylvania, said the MAGA movement will have legs beyond Trump
because of its focus on the middle class.
“The working people in our country over the last 30 years have been
left behind,” Sands said. “I consider them to be the forgotten men
and women. And they’re forgotten no more under this movement.”
(Reporting by James Oliphant; additional reporting by Helen Coster
and Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
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