Trump's running mate enters the scene

Photo: Anna Moneymaker Getty Images via AFP Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance speaks at a fundraising event at Discovery World on July 16-17, 2024 in Milwaukee.

Camille Camdessus – Agence France-Presse and Sébastien Blanc – Agence France-Presse

Published at 4:30 p.m.

• United States

He was chosen by Donald Trump to assist him in the campaign and will become vice-president if the Republican is elected: the atypical senator J.D. Vance will make a speech Wednesday at the Milwaukee convention.< /p>

The young elected official from Ohio will deliver a speech at 9:30 p.m. in front of the world's media, during a new prime-time evening of the party's high mass.

The 39-year-old, bestselling author, was propelled to the forefront when Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would choose him as his running mate for the race for the White House, ending weeks of suspense.

Faithful among the faithful

For a presidential candidate, this choice often meets the objective of attracting new voters, or to compensate for identified weaknesses in terms of image or program.

J.D. Vance, an anti-system elected official from a modest background, with a unique background since he had a career in the army as well as in Silicon Valley, should reassure the party's most right-wing voters, while Donald Trump is trying to make breakthroughs. among the moderates.

In the American Senate, this tall brunette with piercing blue eyes stood out for his fierce opposition to aid to Ukraine, demanding that these funds be allocated instead to the fight against illegal immigration.

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If Donald Trump, 78, is elected, J.D. Vance will also bring a current of youth to the White House since he will become the third youngest vice-president in the history of the United States. Unis.

But one quality may have counted more than anything to explain his selection by the Republican candidate: loyalty.

Even though he has been very critical of Donald Trump in the past – going so far as to compare him to Hitler in private messages – J.D. Vance has made a complete turnaround to establish himself as one of the most ardent defenders of the billionaire and his MAGA ideology, “Make America great again”.

Saturday, just a few hours after the shooting of former president J.D. Vance accused President Joe Biden of having, with his rhetoric about the dangers of Trumpism, “directly caused this assassination attempt.”

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Trump’s speech Thursday

This attack unsurprisingly turned the Milwaukee convention upside down, the objective of which was above all to designate Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for the November 5 presidential election.

The images of the septuagenarian, presenting himself with his fist raised and a bandage on his ear in a room carpeted in red and blue, are already historic.

Some of his supporters immediately imitated, also strolling in the aisles of the Milwaukee sports complex with a small white square hiding their hearing.

“I do it to pay tribute to President Trump and the sacrifice he makes for our country,” confides Joe Neglia, delegate from Arizona.

But the high point of this meticulously choreographed meeting will come on Thursday when Donald Trump formally accepts his party's nomination.

The occasion of a spectacular party, punctuated by the traditional release of thousands of red, white and blue balloons.

This will be the first time that the Republican will speak on stage since he escaped this assassination attempt.

Having barely finished the convention, Donald Trump will fly to Michigan on Saturday where he will hold a campaign rally , exactly one week after the attack.

J.D Vance will take his place next to him on the stage.