Trump’s selection of Vance as his running mate, invocations of God and an unaccustomed attack on ‘corporate elites’ highlight a GOP convention opener that mostly avoids the most incendiary rhetoric.
Donald Trump got a new partner.
Joe Biden got dragged as old and senile.
Republican delegates — and those watching on TV — got an earful about the high price of gasoline and groceries, and a chance to see a conspicuously bandaged Trump arrive to triumphantly claim the GOP nomination.
The Republican National Convention clocked its opening day in Cream City, the most unfortunate metropolitan nickname in America. (Sorry Milwaukee, you’re better than that.)
Columnists Anita Chabria and Mark Z. Barabak took it all in. Together, they review Day 1 and assess Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, a bold tonsorial move ending a decades-long dearth of facial hair on a presidential ticket.
Chabria: So J.D Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy” and a guy who once upon a time — like in 2016 — compared Trump to Hitler, is now crowned prince of a hoped-for Trump dynasty. What do you make of that, Mark?
Barabak: You would have to be a churl not to respect and admire Vance’s career path, which, to use a phrase oft-heard Monday might, truly embodies the American Dream.
The rise from an impoverished, dysfunctional upbringing in hard-luck Appalachia to Yale Law School and the U.S. Senate is truly the stuff of political myth-making.
Less admirable is Vance’s elasticity and seeming total lack of any deep-seated, immovable principles. In addition to the well-chronicled “Hitler” jab, he used a whole glossary of words like “idiot” to describe Trump, called himself “a Never Trump guy” and said he “never liked him.”
Welp, never mind all of that.
It’s hard to see Vance bringing much to the ticket in terms of broadening its political appeal. The rural and white working-class voters who may appreciate and see some of themselves in Vance are already going to vote for Trump. Twice, if they could.
It seems like Vance’s strongest attribute — apart from the backing of billionaire uber-troll Elon Musk, who pushed for his selection and now promises to pour obscene amounts of money into a pro-Trump Super PAC — is his sycophancy.
At a 2022 campaign event, when Vance was running for Senate, Trump showed up and taunted him for “kissing my ass” in a desperate bid for his support. Vance chuckled right along.
Of course, look where he is now. So maybe Vance gets the last laugh.
Why do you think Trump chose him?
Chabria: I agree with all that, but I see something darker in Vance — and something distinctly Californian, but not in a good way.
As you pointed out, he has Silicon Valley ties (he worked there as a venture capitalist) not just to Musk but also billionaire David Sacks, who has become such a Trump fanboy that he spoke Monday night at the convention. And then there’s Peter Thiel, who gave Vance $10 million for his Senate race and is a longtime Trumper.
These men have world views that seem light on democracy and heavy on their own interests.
