The Conversation: After months of Reality Show gamesmanship and speculation. , JD Vance has emerged as Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate and the heir apparent to the America First movement. He has less than two years in Congress under his belt, the first-term senator from Ohio has very little experience in politics, let alone conducting foreign policy.
Vance has argued that the US should turn its focus away from Russia and toward East Asia. Earlier this week, he said the war in Ukraine must be brought to a “rapid close” so that America could focus on “the real issue, which is China.” That’s the “biggest threat to our country and we’re completely distracted from it,” said Vance.
Per CNN; “The unreliability of American leadership in Europe has been a fact that Europeans have now had some time to get used to (during Trump’s term). Even if Biden is reelected, America will be difficult to rely on,” Greene said. But if in fact, not only are we looking at another Trump administration, but we’re looking at a future of the Republican Party that is dominated by people like JD Vance, then that is a much more sobering prospect for Europe,” he said.
Ukraine is not he only country dreading Vance as Vice President to Trump as President. According to CNN, “. . . America’s closest allies were already dreading the prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Now that the former president has picked JD Vance as his running mate, they potentially have a lot more to worry about. By choosing Vance, Trump has sent a clear signal that, if elected, his America-first foreign policy will be back in force.
From The Hill: While it’s not yet clear how much influence Vance would have on foreign policy, he has carved out an identity as a full-throated opponent of support for Ukraine, arguing for Europe to shoulder that responsibility while the U.S. maintains support for Israel and pivots to East Asia to protect Taiwan from China.
One of Trump’s primary motivations for selecting Vance is to win over voters in the battleground states and Midwest, with Vance saying the former president asked him to help out in Pennsylvania and Michigan in particular.