JD Vance confirmed as Trump's running mate in US election

The Republican Party confirmed on Monday former US President Donald Trump as its candidate for the upcoming US election and Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.

Vance was greeted at the first day of the Republican National Convention (RNC) with a standing ovation, while Trump made his first public appearance since he survived an assassination attempt days earlier.  

"Just overwhelmed with gratitude. What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump. He delivered peace and prosperity once, and with your help, he'll do it again," Vance said on social media after his nomination. 

Trump's rival, US President Joe Biden, condemned the Republicans' choice of vice presidential candidate.

"He's a clone of Trump on the issues," Biden told reporters. "I don't see any difference."

Who is JD Vance? 

Vance is a 39-year-old Marine Corps veteran who rose to prominence with his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," that tells of the hardships he faced growing up in Appalachian Kentucky and Ohio. After graduating from Yale Law School in 2013, Vance worked under Peter Thiel, the German-American venture capitalist who is known for huge donations to right-wing causes.

When Trump first ran for president that same year, Vance called him "dangerous" and "unfit for office."

However, Vance was introduced to the Trump family when Donald Trump Jr. became a fan of his book. He eventually met with Trump as president in 2021.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also praised the book in the past, calling it a "touching" account of growing up in poverty, but has since criticized Vance for swiftly changing his politics to support Trump. 

"From a self-declared conservative opponent of Donald Trump, who has a razor-sharp analysis of the injustices of American society and only finds a way out for himself with luck and his military career, Vance now seems to have turned into a fiery supporter of this right-wing populist in order to gain his support," Scholz said.

Once he was elected as a senator for Ohio in 2023, Vance fiercely defended Trump's policies and behavior, which he said resonated with voters who felt forgotten by the party.

In recent days, Vance attracted controversy for his comments on the assassination attempt against Trump.

"The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs," Vance wrote on social media. "That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Biden said Monday he had made a mistake by saying Trump should be put in the "bullseye" last week but added that Trump has frequently employed violent rhetoric on the campaign trail.

What are JD Vance's views?

Ideologically, Vance has been described by the president of the Heritage Foundation as a leading conservative voice on key issues including free market economics, a less interventionist foreign policy and "American culture writ large."

Democrats have called Vance an extremist on issues like abortion. He signaled support for a nationwide 15-week abortion ban during his senate campaign, but he softened his stance after Ohio voters overwhelmingly backed a 2023 abortion rights amendment.

On foreign policy, Vance has followed the so-called America first narrative against Ukraine aid and calling on Europe to step up its defense capabilities. 

Earlier this year at the Munich Security Conference, Vance argued that the main problem in Ukraine was "that there's no clear end point," adding that the US doesn't manufacture enough weapons and ammunition to back wartime efforts in Europe, the Middle East and "potentially contingency in East Asia."

"Obviously we love our NATO allies and I think we value the NATO alliance, and that's true across the political spectrum," Vance said at the event.

But, he said, Trump and conservative Republicans want Europe "to be a little bit more self-sufficient" when it comes to defense.

fb, es/rmt (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)