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4 months ago
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Former US president Donald Trump on Monday (15 July) picked controversial Republican Senator JD Vance, who has openly spoken out in favour of isolationist foreign policies, as the vice presidential running mate for his White House bid.
Vance, a 39-year-old US Republican Senator from Ohio, joined Trump’s presidential ticket on Monday (15 July) at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee after Trump officially became the party’s nominee for the November presidential elections.
Born in southern Ohio, in the geographic region of Appalachia that has long struggled economically and has been associated with poverty, Vance rose to political prominence after his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy”.
In the bestseller book, he tried to explain how the socioeconomic problems confronting his hometown and Appalachian communities were symbolic of Trump’s popularity among poor white working-class Americans, especially in the ‘Rust Belt’ of the country. At this point, he decisively spoke out against Trump.
After serving in the Marine Corps and attending Yale Law School, Vance worked as a venture capitalist in San Francisco, turning from Trump critic to supporter when he ran for Senate in 2022.
Isolationist policies
Vance’s political beliefs supporters are described as a mix of isolationism with economic populism, which plays well with Trump’s most conservative allies but has alienated a series of core Republicans in the party.
He is seen as one of the staunchest supporters of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration.
Regarding his foreign policy beliefs specifically, he is seen as championing America First isolationism along with the most radical members of his party.
The Trump-Vance ticket could cause trouble for Europeans, who are anxious about what a second Trump presidency could mean for Washington’s commitment to Europe’s security.
Several European diplomats told Euractiv earlier this year that they are particularly worried about Vance’s vocal opposition to US aid for Ukraine.
When the US Congress held up a $60 billion military aid package at a critical time for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, Vance played a key role in arguing to kill the bill.
Munich moment
Speaking on a rare occasion in front of a European audience in Munich, he vocally opposed transferring more US funds to support Ukraine and blasted what he sees as Europe’s over-dependence on the United States regarding security.
Vance then said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did not pose an existential threat to Europe, Americans and Europeans could not provide enough ammunition to defeat Russia in Ukraine, and the war had to end in “some negotiated peace”.
In Munich, he also avoided meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of a bipartisan group of US Senators.
As for NATO spending and the future of US foreign policy, Vance told those in Munich, “No, I don’t think that we should pull out of NATO, and no, I don’t think that we should abandon Europe.”
He added, “But yes, I think that we should pivot. The United States has to focus more on East Asia. That will be the future of American foreign policy for the next 40 years, and Europe has to wake up to that fact,” he said.
European diplomats expect him to support a hawkish China policy, pushing Europeans even further on the confrontational path with Beijing than they currently are with tit-for-tat probes into trade barriers over a series of products from electric vehicles to pork and brandy.
“There are a lot of bad guys all over the world. And I’m much more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe,” Vance had said.
His comments, perceived by the majority of attendants as a ‘cold shower’, left many European leaders and diplomats worried as the forum since its creation had usually been used for a display of bipartisan transatlantic unity on security and defence cooperation.
“The American security blanket has allowed European security to atrophy,” Vance said back then.
English (US)