Victory with Trump’s blessing
For Vance, “The Donkey Kiss” paid off
Written by Hubertus Vollmer
09/11/2022 11:07 AM
In Ohio, “Hillbilly Elegy” author and investor J.D. Vance has won the US Senate election. It’s also a win for former President Trump, who mocked how badly his former critic wanted his support during the election campaign.
The photo above his Twitter profile includes two key words in JD Vance’s political biography: “End Trump.” The political entrant did this with this seal of approval: He won a seat in the Ohio Senate — against a Democratic candidate who was in survey He was ahead for a long time.
You probably don’t offend the 38-year-old if you assume he was openly begging for Donald Trump’s support. Vance has become known as a Trump critic. He is the author of the bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he writes an autobiographical account of industrial decline in the Midwest. The book was published in 2016, four months before the presidential election that Trump won over Democrat Hillary Clinton. At that time, Vance became a kind of Trump interpreter, criticizing them sharply – both publicly and privately. Wrote in a text message to a friend at that timeTrump could become “America’s Hitler”.
At least publicly, Vance changed his position. In 2020, he supported Trump in the presidential campaign and apologized for previous attacks. Calling him “the best president of my life,” he even embraced the conspiracy myth that his 2020 election victory was “stolen.” Successfully: In the end, Vance got Trump “approval” for his Senate nomination. This support him It did not help in every caseIn Philadelphia, for example, Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, who was supported by Trump, was unable to assert himself against Democrat John Fetterman. But for Vance Trump he was useful, without him he would have already run in the primaries narrowly escaped.
“JD Kisses My Ass”
Ohio is one of the rust belt states that has suffered from the effects of uncontrolled structural change for decades. A few years ago, Ohio was still a classic swing state in which the Republicans won the elections and the Democrats won the elections. Meanwhile, the country is considered a “red” republic. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump won the Ohio presidential election by a wide margin.
So Vance had good reasons to win over Trump. “Like some others, J.D. Vance has said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he understands it now,” Trump said in April, while officially endorsing Vance. “It’s our best chance to win a race that can be very tough.” But at his campaign appearance five months later, Trump then taunted the candidate: “GD before my ass, he wants to support me so much,” the former president said, as Vance stood next to him on the podium. Vance later dismissed the insult as a joke.
Vance is not the only Republican who has gone from critic to Trump supporter. Particularly fine examples are former presidential candidate Ted Cruz and Senator Lindsey Graham. Cruz got into an argument with Trump in 2016, in which Trump claimed Cruz’s father had him To assassinate John F. Kennedy. On the other hand, Graham said in 2016 that if Republicans nominate Trump, “we will be destroyed — and we will have won him.” Meanwhile, Graham also bowed to Trump.
No thanks to Trump
In theory, these changes can always be an expression of sincere conviction. However, it is most likely the result of satirical calculations. One reason for Vance’s change of heart is that German-American tech investor Peter Thiel actually backed him with $10 million last year. It wasn’t clear at the time whether Vance would survive the Ohio primary. A big Trump fan, Thiel was Vance’s boss until a few years ago. Because Vance comes from the working class, but is now – after studying law at Yale – a millionaire.
The question now is what makes Vance so successful and what that means for Trump. In his ten-minute acceptance speech in the state capital Columbus, Vance thanked his family, several employees, and his late grandmother. However, there was one name missing from the long list: Trump.
