A few days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, his relatives are dissected by hundreds of media. Among these, we can cite the members of his administration, likened to oligarchs by Joe Biden in his farewell speechor his own wife, Melania Trump, who will be entitled to a documentary on Amazon Prime soon.
Despite everything, on the highest steps of the podium, we obviously find JD Vance, who is preparing to become the 50th American vice president. The tandem he forms with Donald Trump synchronizes in particular during the unveiling of their official portraits on January 16.
If the photo of Donald Trump did not go unnoticed, that of JD Vance does not seem to attract as much attention. This 40-year-old ex-soldier will nevertheless become the third youngest vice president in United States history. This position adds to a track record that goes beyond the usual political patterns.
A bestseller adapted for cinema
Before joining Washington, James David Vance had an atypical career path. He grew up in a modest single-parent family in the “Rust Belt”, a region of the northeastern United States deeply marked by industrial decline, then joined the army. He then studied law at one of the most prestigious universities in the country before making a career in Silicon Valley.
But it’s a book, Hillbilly Elegypublished in 2016 which made him known. In this autobiographical story that became a bestseller adapted for cinema, JD Vance recounts his chaotic childhood in a white America ravaged by unemployment and addictions, and gives voice to a disillusioned and declassed working population, full of resentments.
This father of three children has become a popular figure on television sets, on which he energetically and loyally defends Donald Trump. If he is perfectly aligned with the migratory and economic positions of his boss, JD Vance nevertheless appears more to the right on other issues, such as abortion, where he has spoken out against exceptions to the bans, even in the event of rape or incest.
A more radical orientation to Donald Trump’s movement
JD Vance has even become the leading figure of the “New Right” movement, young conservatives who are trying to give a more radical direction to Donald Trump’s isolationist and anti-immigration movement, wrote in March Politico. “Unlike Trump’s more conventional Republican supporters, Vance’s New Right cohort sees Trump as only the first step in a broader populist-nationalist revolution that is already reshaping the American right,” could -we read there.
During this campaign, the atypical senator from Ohio was mired in a series of controversies with the resurgence of old videos. In one of them, the bestselling author accused the Democrats in power of being a bunch of “unhappy cat ladies” without awareness of the “direct interest” of the country, since they lack offspring.
-In other sequences, JD Vance is also seen criticizing Donald Trump, to whom he now swears absolute loyalty. “I have a good memory. If you politically fight Trump and the candidates he supports today, do not come and ask for my help in a year to pass your law or the projects that are close to your heart,” warned at the start of the year the senator with the round face, impeccable locks and neat beard.
Comments mocked by his opponents, who did not fail to underline the irony of the situation. Before defending Donald Trump tooth and nail, JD Vance declared himself a “guy who will never be pro-Trump”. He also called him “idiotic” and “harmful”, even worrying that he was “America’s Hitler”.
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