Why did Trump Pick Vance

One thing one has to appreciate with Donald Trump is that he is not a politician. He really hates politicians. He is, at heart and soul, a businessman, and a tough and successful one at that. He has the results to show for it.

On the other hand, he doesn’t like or trust politicians. He thinks that too many are self-serving individuals and points to Biden and his career to prove his point.

One of the things that Trump had to do during his business career was negotiate with tough people contracts that would be beneficial and profitable to him and his companies.

This was the theme of his political career as witnessed during his previous term as President of the United States.

Trump had a rich choice of people to pick to be his Vice-Presidential, most having good results as competent politicians and state governors.

He picked JD Vance not because he is an Ohio senator, but because Trump appreciated his smarts in business and his contacts with deep pocket contacts in the investment world.

It is little known that JD Vance worked for years as a venture capitalist before becoming a politician.

Trump announced, “I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio,” but it was the way that Vance financed his campaign to be the senator for Ohio that appealed to Trump, particularly JD’s personal contacts with stellar entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel who invested in Bitcoin, PayPal, Open AI, and Palantir to give only four examples of successful investing.

Vance’s contacts helped bring investor dollars to his home state of Ohio.

Thiel had close contacts with Donald Trump back in 2016 as Trump was making the decision to run for president but Vance brought him aboard the Trump train.

Vance launched his own investment fund in 2020 with the help of Thiel and others who later invested in Vance’s state when he entered politics and ran for Senate in 2022,

Thiel contributed $5 million to support Vance’s Senate run in 2022 through a donation to a Vance-aligned group called Protect Ohio Values. Vance won and entered the Senate in 2023.

Thiel had stayed out of the 2024 election until Vance brought him in.

Vance is also close with billionaire investor David Sacks, who also became a key Trump backer.

Vance and billionaire investor, David Sacks, organized a recent Silicon Valley fundraiser for Trump. The event, at Sacks’s home in San Francisco, raised a reported $12 million for Trump’s campaign.

Several leading AI innovators attended that event which impressed Trump enormously.

It was noted that Sacks spoke at the Republican National Convention Monday night.

Vance’s had made critical comments against Trump. Back in 2016, Vance talked about the drug problems in his home state and argued that Trump wasn’t the answer to the problems in Middletown, Ohio.

But, since then, Vance distanced himself from his past criticism and became one of Trump’s most outspoken defenders since. They came together over the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, when Trump arrived at the scene, and Biden didn’t.

When Trump spoke with other hedge fund billionaires such as Ken Griffin and Paul Singer, they pointed to other contestants for the role of VC.

Vance held three fund-raisers for Trump, and they began to spend private time together including on one or two long flights to venues.

Vance, like Trump, has been outspoken against what he calls Big Tech censorship of conservative voices and made that a theme of his time in Washington.

The change in Trump’s new campaign style was marked by an announcement that his policy will be a more cooperative approach to his political opponents if he became President for the sake of the country.

Vance may have played a role in that having reached across the aisle to work with Democrat Sherrod Brown on the Railway Safety Act of 2023 aimed at preventing future train disasters following a Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

It’s part of Vance’s focus on Ohio and factory building that has marked his time in the Senate. A Vance economy would have more manufacturing jobs.

As for foreign policy, Vance is against American intervention. He has spoken against further funding for Ukraine, preferring peace through negotiations and territorial concessions.

Vance also echoed Trump in demanding greater European contribution to NATO.

“We want Europe to be successful,” Vance said, “but Europe has got to take a bigger role in its own security. You can’t do that without industry.”

Vance spoke about engaging with Putin to hammer out an agreement that will serve “American interests.”

“The fact that he’s a bad guy doesn’t mean we can’t engage in basic diplomacy prioritizing American interests. There are a lot of bad guys out there and I am more interested in some of the problems in Asia.”

Vance would like to see greater emphasis on Asia with America beefing up its military and pivot into putting more resources against an aggressive China and North Korea.

While he had expressed support for Israel and has visited Jerusalem the jury is out over whether his territorial concessions will also apply to Israel.

He has said he is a Zionist. Vance agrees with Trump that Israel be allowed to “finish the job” against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, adding that ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia can only be established once Hamas is defeated in the Gaza Strip.

“Our goal in the Middle East should be to allow the Israelis to get to some good place with the Saudi Arabians and other Gulf Arab states. There is no way that we can do that unless the Israelis finish the job with Hamas.”

In an interview on Fox TV, Vance said Trump would invigorate the process to achieve a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia which would be the proper response to the danger posed by Iran.

That is reassuring for Israel but perhaps Vance will leave Israel to Trump and his choice for Secretary of State and US Ambassador to Israel.

Barry Shaw,

Israel institute for Strategic Studies.