Why Trump Suddenly Thinks Picking J.D. Vance Was a Mistake

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Why Trump Suddenly Gets Thinks Picking J.D. Vance Was a Mistake

Joe Biden’s decision to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris to succeed him on the Democratic ticket has Donald Trump’s team scrambling.

Edith Olmsted
July 22, 2024 / 12:27 p.m. ET

Republicans may be starting to second-guess their party’s pick for vice president.

Much of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, including the decision to tap Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, was structured around attacks on President Joe Biden. But then Biden announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from the presidential race altogether.

Trump campaign officials acknowledged that Trump selected the inexperienced Vance, charged with all his techno-authoritarian ideas, to boost support among their own base, not extend a hand to swing voters, according to The Atlantic. Vance was a symbol of the Trump team’s assuredness that they would win in 2024. Come Sunday, that assuredness appears to be shrinking.

“Most striking thing I heard from Trump allies yesterday was the second-guessing of JD Vance—a selection, they acknowledged, that was [born] of cockiness, meant to run up margins with the base in a blowout rather than persuade swing voters in a nail-biter,” Atlantic staff writer Tim Alberta, who had written the piece about the panicking Trump campaign, posted on X (formerly Twitter).

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[Blue Owl]

1. Too bad -- now he's J.D. Hog-tied....

[Lovie777]

2. Eff him................................

[birdographer]

3. I had read an opinion that Pootie is the one who wanted Vance

Vance is a younger Donnie. Vance has been vocal about cutting all aid to Ukraine. He is Donnie 2.0; given his flip on trump, he is likely equally easy to manipulate. I assumed that if there were any truth to the Putin connection, then perhaps Pootie thought that Donnie had a chance of winning. And after the win, his useful idiot having lost his usefulness, he would simply see that Donnie fell out a window, putting the younger version in place. That all hinges on Vance being a Putin choice, which the article doesn't mention and may not at all be the case.

I'm not sure we can know what goes on behind the scenes.

[BOSSHOG]

4. President Bidens timing

Make sure trump and his running mate are locked in? I ask with a pleasant grin.

[anciano]

7. That's my thought too.... experience matters.

[CrispyQ]

5. Who's surprised? Doubling down is what they do & they just doubled down on maga & told everyone else to fuck off.

Ha ha, joke's on you dumb, arrogant assholes.

Now we just have to make sure they don't fuck us at the courts.

[Metaphorical]

8. Trump was counting on one of two situations

1. Trump beats Biden at the polls outright.
2. The election is close enough in key battleground states to demand recounts, then throwing it into the courts

Biden stepping down has skewered #1 and has made #2 far less guaranteed.

As I see it, Trump threw his VP chit away for nothing (and yes, I think he was a Putin plant on Trump). Vance brought with him the promise of Tech Bro money, but that money comes with massive strings, and even billionaires aren't all that liquid - most of their wealth is on paper or tied up in investmetns, and liquidating it, especially in the current environment, is not all that easy (what's more, you can't necessarily get a loan for what amounts to a campaign donation - banks get very tetchy about that). If Trump can't deliver, that money dries up quickly, because no one's going to throw good money after bad right now.

I also think those same tech bros really do not want to be seen associating with Trump. He's NOT popular in the Bay Area, Boston, New York or Seattle (and I suspect that the GOP in general is not seen favorably in Austin), and if they are seen as openly supporting Trump with significant multi-million dollar donations, employees and even board members may take a very dim view. Both Musk's SpaceX and Twitter(X) are faced with mass exoduses for moving to Texas - this is only going to accelerate that.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Vance's resume is extraordinarily thin, and he has little experience other than

flame-throwing conservative bombast.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. Count down to when Trump asks JD to withdraw

I'm betting he does that soon and puts in someone like Noem.