New York Times – Trump “Picked His Successor”

The New York Times describes President Trump’s VP pick as “He picked his successor.”

Yesterday President Trump announced that he had picked JD Vance as his Vice President candidate.

President Trump Announces Senator JD Vance Will Be His Vice President!

The New York Times reported on this event as follows:

Donald Trump did something yesterday that he’s never before done. He picked a successor.

Trump chose Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate, a strategic move driven by the former president’s belief that he’ll win in November by recapturing the Midwestern states he lost in 2020. With Vance’s hardscrabble upbringing and Trump-aligned ideology, the senator is Trump’s attempt to appeal to those voters.

Selecting Vance also signals the party’s final commitment to Trumpism. Vance is one of the most aggressive and ideological disciples of the MAGA movement. Instead of balancing the ticket with someone who could expand Trump’s appeal to new voters, Trump has anointed the senator as the future of the Republican Party.

The party that Trump took over in 2016 — one guided by establishmentarians like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and John McCain — is now unrecognizable. Trump ushered in economic populism and pushed out the quest for limited government spending. He traded foreign interventionism for restrictive trade policies and downgraded the importance of country-club Republicans while prioritizing blue-collar workers.

The arrival of Vance on the ticket shows there is no going back.

At first blush, it may seem surprising that Trump would put the future of the party in the hands of a relatively new convert to his brand of conservatism. (As an author and private citizen, Vance said in 2016 that Trump might be “America’s Hitler.” Later, as he ran for office, the Ohioan embraced Trumpism.) But Trump is focused on winning, and he believes Vance is an asset.