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The heir to Trump and GOP

The heir to Trump and GOP

Alfred Lela

The selection of JD Vance as the Vice Presidential candidate and, most likely, soon to be officially in the White House in January 2025 as VP will mark the present and future of the Republican Party. The choice is quite atypical, as are almost all of Trump's actions. However, the 39-year-old from Ohio is not a choice to surprise or scandalize, but it seems to be a choice to establish a new Republican Party that Trump's legacy will mark.

First, consider JD Vance's age. Approaching his forties, he will be one of the youngest Vice Presidents in American history and possibly one of the youngest Presidents. He is half the age of his boss, Trump, yet shares the political rhetoric labeled as nationalist conservatism with him.

Through Vance, Trump has also avoided a cliché of American and global politics, the need for every man in high power to be paired with a woman, a kind of gender affirmative action.

By selecting the new senator from Ohio, Trump, a New Yorker and representative of the East Coast elite, has united Main Street (the people) with Wall Street (the elites). Vance's background is relatively modest: He comes from a poor family. Thus, Trump has chosen to represent those he describes rhetorically as excluded or left behind.

What makes the choice of the Vice Presidential candidate even more atypical is that he is a writer. To be precise, every Presidential candidate in America and almost every senator and high-ranking official adds a book to their political ladder—but these are primarily texts written by ghostwriters. In the case of JD Vance, he is the author, and not just that, but a bestseller turned into a movie by one of Hollywood's famous directors, Ron Howard.

Equally atypical is that Mr. Vance goes against the grain regarding religion. From Protestantism, the dominant Christian denomination in America, he has converted to Roman Catholicism.

All these elements make up JD Vance's political silhouette, but central to his selection remains the fact that Donald Trump has targeted him as a successor. The Republican Party, which was expected to crumble under the Trump cyclone, as predicted by the left and feared by the right, is being rejuvenated and renewed.

It seems that Trump has made an excellent choice.

Now, it is up to history to disprove or certify it.

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