Editor’s Note: This analysis was originally published in CNN’s American newsletter during that time. Read past questions and subscribe here.
JD Vance is a different kind of vice president.
He is not a master of Washington Machiavelli working in the shadows, like Dick Cheney. He is not a safe pair of foreign policy, like George H.W. Bush and Joe Biden.
The youthful Vance appears to have instead created himself as anthropomorphism for his boss, Donald Trump’s most extreme social media posts. His provocation of Ukrainian President Voldimir Zelensky in his oval office last week sparked a diplomatic crisis. He enjoyed a trip to Munich to insult America’s European allies. And Vance was in the UK homepage news after saying that Ukraine needs a better security guarantee than what was offered by “some random countries that have not fought war in 30 or 40 years.” Vance later said he was “absurdly dishonest” by saying he was talking about Britain and France, but they were the only allies to volunteer to the public of the Ukrainian Peace Force.
Vance knows how the wind blows in the Republican Party. That’s why he abandoned his light-empt against the president – after wondering in 2016 whether Trump was America’s Hitler. Now in the party worshiping its leader, the Vice President is one of the president’s most prominent public worshipers.
But Vance is a fascinating character. He rose to the Ivy League from the difficult development of Scrabble for the Appalachians. He is very clever – one of the reasons why his political positioning is often considered evidence of evil calculations. As a brief Ohio Senator, Vance is a lighter splash on traditional media and Washington elites, he fits naturally into Trump’s populism. He is also a US Marine, so we should know more about the contributions of our US allies to the war on terrorism. And he is rich in Silicon Valley, moved sharply to the right, and is with a big tech baron who embraced Trump in his second term.
The Vice President named him “Hilbilly Elegy” about his childhood in the underprivileged areas of Ohio and Kentucky. The 2016 book explained how industrialization promoted poverty and drug addiction, and ultimate political backlash against globalized free trade policies. It became a kind of handbook for understanding Trump supporters in his first semester.
Given the background, it is not surprising that Vance has produced the most eloquent debate of the campaign against America’s first economic policy. At 40, he is a potential heir to Trump – the president refused to anoint him in a recent Fox News interview, but he didn’t want to consider giving up his throne anytime soon.
Vance is the epitome of what many Europeans belittle about America. As an isolationist, he does not see any important national interests towards Ukraine. His support for the far right in Europe, including the German extremist AFD, is equally irritating, his hints of dullness and self-righteousness irritates many foreigners. A day before he stood up to Zelensky in his oval office, he rebuked Kiel’s ancestors for free speech in the UK, although the British Prime Minister had shut him down.
Vance is young, ambitious, ideological, and has a clear tip on his shoulder about the institutional intellectual, so there is a vice president, Richard Nixon, who he reminds us.
When Nixon joined Dwight Eisenhower tickets in 1952, he spent plenty of time in the Senate to drink coffee like Vance. And like his 21st century successor, he was a new kind of GOP ideologue – the current VP’s parenting “wakened” liberals while Nixon turned the supposed communists living in America into hounds. And like Vance, Nixon turned to higher. His ambitions and preference for the dark side of politics sparked tension with the experienced boss. This portrays the relationship between Trump and Vance.
After finally winning a big job in 1968, Nixon used the vice president for eight years as a crash course in global work, the key to his success as a politician.
But don’t underestimate Vance. He is rising high and fast. But will hubrism lead him to get too close to the sun?
The Liberal Party elected the successor of unpopular leader Justin Trudeau on Sunday, who will soon replace him as prime minister. My favourite is Mark Kearney, former governor of Canadian and British banks. Former finance minister Christyre Freeland, who resigned in the fall of Trudeau, hopes to beat him to the top job.
Suddenly, liberal leadership appears to be worthwhile. Trump’s trade blitzkrieg and demands on Canada have changed politics north of the border to become the 51st state. Trudeau’s party once appeared to be doomed to be defeated by Pierre Polyerbre’s Conservative Party in the elections up until the fall. But Poilierbre’s Trump theme exposed him, and the liberal deficit in the polls evaporated.
The big question now is what next? Kearney currently does not have a seat in Parliament, so if he becomes prime minister, he must seek it at the earliest opportunity in a by-election.
But will he try to exploit the explosion of patriotism and antipathy towards Trump by gambling and calling for a Snap general election? If he loses, he will be a political punchline. But Fortune stands for the brave — and this may be the only chance of shocking rebound for the liberal.
