J.D. Vance Tries to Put a Polished Spin on Trumpism in RNC Speech

J.D. Vance spoke to the nation for the first time as former President Donald Trump’s running mate on Wednesday, headlining the third night of the Republican National Convention.

Vance began his speech by praising Trump’s resilience following the assassination attempt against him on Saturday, suggesting as he did then that Democratic rhetoric was to blame for the shooting. “I want all Americans to go and watch the video of a would-be assassin coming a quarter of an inch from taking his life,” he said. “Consider the lies they told you about Donald Trump, and then look at that photo of him defiant.”

“Now consider what they said,” he continued. “They said he was a tyrant. They said he must be stopped at all costs. But how did he respond? He called for national unity, for national calm, literally right after an assassin nearly took his life.”

Trump may have told a few interviewers that he wants to unify the nation, but he’s since continued to attack Democrats as usual on Truth Social, bashing Biden and Democratic “witch hunts” and calling his opponents “Communists.” Trump will speak at the RNC on Thursday.

The rest of Vance’ speech was a mix of stories about his upbringing — which he chronicled in his bestselling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy — and standard-fare MAGA talking points. He bashed immigrants, claiming they’ve been stealing jobs from Americans; emphasized the need to bring manufacturing back to the United States; took a thinly veiled jab at NATO by saying “we will make our allies share in the burden of securing world peace”; and decried “deadly Chinese fentanyl” coming across the border.

“We’re done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street,” said Vance. “We’ll commit to the working man.” He continued: “​We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man, union and non union alike.” 

Vance’s populist economic message was more refined than much of the gobbledygook that speakers offered during the RNC’s “Make America Wealthy Again” night on Monday. 

This labor-friendly rhetoric may only go so far. An outside adviser who counsels Trump on economic issues recently told Rolling Stone that within the past several months, the former president has privately slammed the unusually pro-union Biden-era National Labor Relations Board, adding that Trump agrees the NLRB must be “pro-business” again like it was during his time in office.

Trump chose the first-term Ohio senator on Monday, bringing a close to months of speculation about whom the former president would tap to join him on the 2024 presidential ticket. Vance, 39, doesn’t have much political experience, but he has close ties to Silicon Valley while holding extreme right-wing views — particularly on abortion — that align with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy platform.

Vance may seem a strange choice to many because of his history of bashing Trump. He has called the former president “noxious,” an “idiot,” “cultural heroin,” and a “moral disaster” who could turn into “America’s Hitler.” He went full MAGA during his Senate run, however, landing Trump’s endorsement and winning the seat comfortably. He’s been one of Trump’s most ardent supporters ever since, and said that, unlike Mike Pence, he would have done whatever he could to stop the certification of the Electoral College on Jan. 6, 2021, if he were vice president at the time. Trump has now made him heir apparent to his perch atop the Republican Party.

Vance’s ascension has been widely praised by the right, while Democrats have warned that his place on the ticket confirms that Trump is ready and willing to implement the kind of far-right agenda outlined in Project 2025. “Trump looked for someone he knew would be a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda,” Vice President Kamala Harris said on Wednesday. “Make no mistake: J.D. Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country.” The Biden campaign responded to Vance’s speech on Wednesday by calling him “the poster boy for Project 2025.”

Vance becoming the vice presidential nominee also confirms a second Trump administration would be a disaster for women. The former president is attempting to campaign as a so-called “moderate” on abortion, despite appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights and allowing states to ban the procedure. Instead of endorsing a national abortion ban during the 2024 campaign, Trump has instead declared that the issue should be left to the states. 

As Rolling Stone reported Wednesday, Vance endorsed the idea of a national abortion ban when he was running for Senate in 2022. “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally,” he said, arguing that state-by-state regulations wouldn’t work.

“Let’s say Roe v. Wade is overruled,” Vance said on a podcast. “Ohio bans abortion … you know, in let’s say 2024. And then, every day, George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately black women to get them to go have abortions in California. And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity.”

He subsequently called a proposed 15-week national abortion ban “totally reasonable.” 

Vance didn’t mention abortion in his hour onstage on Wednesday.