MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A day before Donald Trump’s deadline to pick a running mate, after months of private conversations with every corner of his orbit, the former president took a call from a new voice.
That person, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, was one of several people urging Trump in the final moments to select Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
On Monday, Trump finally announced his choice: Vance would be his running mate.
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How Trump landed on Vance, a freshman senator from the heartland only half his age, is a story illustrative of the former president’s showman instincts and chronic indecisiveness. A prolonged audition reminiscent of Trump’s years as host of “The Apprentice.” A constant stream of rumors, many started by Trump himself. Vocal factions campaigning behind the scenes. A secretive vetting process that left contenders in the dark for weeks. And a surprise reveal adding intrigue to the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Trump announced his decision Monday afternoon on his Truth Social platform, telling his followers that Vance was “the person best suited” for the role. Only moments earlier, Trump had shared the information with Vance himself, according to multiple people familiar with the call.
“He just said, ‘Look, I think we gotta go save this country. I think you’re the guy who can help me in the in the best way,'” Vance told Fox News in his first interview after his formal nomination as the GOP vice presidential nominee. “‘You can help me govern. You can help me win. You can help me in some of these Midwestern states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and so forth.'”
‘The Apprentice: Veepstakes Version’
The political marriage between Trump and Vance wasn’t an instant match. Earlier this year, as Trump was working to seal the GOP nomination, Vance had yet to even be approached by the Trump campaign about the possibility of joining him on the ticket.
But as Trump sewed up the race, and the veepstakes parlor game began, Vance’s team started to hear his name in the mix. Trump, who is known to float names himself during dinners with donors and allies, was one of the catalysts for the early intrigue around Vance. The first time Vance’s team began to realize that Trump was formally considering him was when he received vetting paperwork for the running mate process in early June.
The relationship between the two blossomed in the spring and summer over joint appearances at campaign events and closed-door fundraisers in California, where Vance, a former venture capitalist, helped Trump connect with wealthy tech entrepreneurs – such as Vance’s close friend, prominent tech investor David Sacks.
Their final meeting before Monday’s decision took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday, sources familiar with the meeting told CNN, and it came just hours before the former president traveled to Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally that would end with an assassination attempt on him. One source familiar with the discussion described their time together as “the final interview before getting the job.”
Vance left Palm Beach confident of his chances but wasn’t assured he would get the nod, the sources said. Meanwhile, Trump continued to flirt publicly and privately with other potential candidates, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both of whom had also met with the former president last week.
The behind-the-scenes lobbying for Burgum and Rubio continued until the final hours as Trump fielded calls from people urging him to consider others, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Trump spent the final 24 hours waffling over his pick, multiple sources told CNN, leaving even those in his inner circle guessing about his ultimate choice.
The constant stream of calls echoed his selection process in 2016, when he wavered on Mike Pence even after he had selected him. During the call when Pence learned he’d serve on the GOP ticket, Trump never formally offered the Indiana governor the job, only alluding to their joint ticket.
Several Republican donors argued for Youngkin as Trump’s pick in recent days as it became clear that Rubio and Burgum may not make the cut. A subset of the donor pool didn’t want Vance as the pick and were pushing for anyone but him.
But Vance had powerful voices pushing for him, too, including the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., a close friend and unabashed supporter, and former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon, who touted the Ohio senator as the best heir to Trump’s MAGA movement nearly up until the day he went to prison earlier this month.
Vance also had the backing of Tucker Carlson, even as the conservative commentator’s former boss Fox News Corp. magnate Rupert Murdoch directly lobbied Trump to pick Burgum and his onetime Fox News prime-time pal Sean Hannity campaigned for Rubio.
Together, Trump Jr., Bannon and Carlson carried tremendous sway as vanguards of the former president’s MAGA movement and high-profile influencers with his right-wing supporters. They argued that Vance not only had the strongest relationship with Trump but said that he would be the most loyal if selected to serve alongside the former president, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.
They also made the case that Vance can appeal to working-class voters viewed as essential to winning the key battleground states in November, given his upbringing in a poor Rust Belt town north of Cincinnati. And Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance – the child of Indian immigrants – was someone they thought could appeal to minority voters, the sources said.
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Sacks and real estate investor Steve Witkoff, a close Trump friend, made late and direct pushes for Vance, too. Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks reached out as well.
Trump Jr. also made a last-minute push for Vance as his father waffled on the pick, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, urging him during a late-night dinner at Mar-a-Lago to pick the Ohio Republican.
Trump Jr. told CNN that he said to his father at the dinner, “Listen, I think I’ve seen him on TV. I’ve seen him prosecute the case against the Democrats. I think no one’s more articulate than that, and I think his story, his background, really helped us in a lot of the places that you’re going to need.”
Even Trump’s son, though, said he was left in the dark until it was posted on Truth Social – a remarkable secret kept under wraps until the first day of the convention.
A change of heart
It wasn’t long ago that Vance considered himself a “Never Trump guy.” In the early days of Trump’s ascent in the GOP, Vance, then best known as the “Hillbilly Elegy” author, was critical of the reality tv star-turned-politician, questioning if Trump was “America’s Hitler” in private messages. He said he was voting third party in 2016.
“I can’t stomach Trump,” Vance said in an interview with NPR at the time. “I think that he’s noxious and is leading the White working class to a very dark place.”
After the “Access Hollywood” tape emerged of Trump bragging about being able to grope women, Vance wrote in a since-deleted social media post: “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us. When we apologize for this man, lord help us.”
Democrats have shared these moments repeatedly in recent weeks, demonstrating the challenge for Trump in picking such a vocal onetime foe. But Vance has since distanced himself from those statements, telling CNN’s Dana Bash in May, “I was wrong about him.”
“I didn’t think he was going to be a good president,” Vance said. “And I was very, very proud to be proven wrong. It’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to get him elected.”
Vance’s about-face was a political prudent move. He entered a contested primary for an open Ohio Senate seat as a vocal backer of the former president, who ultimately endorsed Vance over other conservative alternatives. Vance went on to win that 2022 primary and the general election.
On Monday, as Vance was nominated by his party, one Pennsylvania delegate quipped: “If it was only so easy in his Senate race.”
And therein lies one of the greatest risks for Trump in nominating Vance to be his running mate. He is relatively untested and has little experience. He won his Senate seat two years ago by 6 points – running 19 points behind Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, on the same ticket.
But Trump grew increasingly comfortable with Vance the more he watched the 39-year-old defend him on television. A Yale graduate and a gifted public speaker, Vance has proved an articulate and effective messenger who has become particularly adept at brushing off tough questions about the former president’s legal troubles.
Other contenders for the running mate job also carried flaws. While Trump liked Burgum for having the right look for the part, many around him never saw the national appeal in the relatively unknown former software executive from North Dakota. Trump, meanwhile, closed the door on Rubio over concerns about their shared residence in Florida. Trump has long feared the legal system being used against him and that worry resonated with him in recent days, even as Rubio allies insisted it wouldn’t be a problem for the senator to move elsewhere.
In the end, Trump’s comfort level with Vance won the day.
“(Trump) said rightfully that we have been very, very close for a long time, but especially ‘Since I endorsed you in 2022,'” Vance said in his Fox News interview. “And I would not have won that race without Donald Trump’s endorsement. The president’s trust then and his partnership since then has been something I value a great deal.”
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