Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, takes center stage at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday in a prime-time speech that will illustrate how Trump’s ideas could dominate the party for years to come.
In his brief political career, Vance, 39, has sought to build Trump’s populist instincts into a coherent policy agenda that would see the United States play a less dominant role in global affairs.
Concerns about a second Trump administration sent stocks tumbling on Wednesday, with chipmakers especially hard hit after Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview that Taiwan should have to pay for its own defense.
Elected to the U.S. Senate less than two years ago, Vance has opposed military aid for Ukraine and defended Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
He has argued that the government needs to do more to assist the working class by restricting imports, raising the minimum wage and cracking down on corporate largesse. Those positions conflict with the Republican Party’s traditional pro-business stance, but track Trump’s agenda closely.
Despite these policy shifts, Trump’s hold over the Republican Party appears to be stronger than ever following his assassination attempt.
His former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, offered full-throated endorsements of his candidacy at the party’s convention.
“You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” said Haley, a former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor, who had described Trump as unfit for office during her campaign.
DeSantis, the conservative Florida governor whose campaign sputtered early in the year, received a warm welcome from the crowd as he attacked Biden, 81, as too old for the job.
His right ear bandaged after Saturday’s assassination attempt, Trump applauded from his box in the arena, where he sat alongside Vance.
The show of harmony was intended to contrast with Democrats, who have spent weeks debating whether Biden should abandon his reelection bid after his halting June 27 debate performance against Trump, 78.
Many of the evening’s speeches in Milwaukee – centered on the theme of law and order – were infused with Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, with speakers angrily denouncing Biden’s southern border policies.
While border crossings reached record highs during Biden’s tenure, arrests dropped sharply in June after the president implemented a broad asylum ban.
Trump has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort of illegal immigrants in US history.
Some of the heated attacks contradicted the message of national unity Trump had promised to deliver after the attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
In the wake of the shooting, voter fears about the deeply polarized nation ahead of the Nov. 5 election seem only to have deepened.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday found 80% of voters – including similar shares of Republicans and Democrats – agreed “the country is spiraling out of control.”
Authorities have yet to identify a motive for the shooting. The 20-year-old gunman was killed at the scene by the US Secret Service.
In his first campaign speech since the assassination attempt, Biden told Black voters in Las Vegas on Tuesday he was “all in” for reelection, again dismissing calls from some Democrats to step aside.
The four-day convention will culminate with Trump’s prime-time address on Thursday when he formally accepts the party’s nomination to face Biden in a rematch of 2020.
Source: SABC
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Controversial Mzansi podcaster, Mac G makes a shocking revelation during a recent episode of his Podcast and Chill about Nkosazana Daughter’s child.
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