Is JD Vance for real?

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Right the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, you name it.

They're mostly just working class white Americans. Jd Vance, a little known author, thinks he might have some answers about why they love Donald Trump.

Fundamentally, what's going on and what Donald Trump has done is changed the focus of the white working class from a sort of engaged in constructive politics to a politics appointing the finger.

That's Vans, who just published an autobiography about growing up Paul in the Midwest. Talking to journalist Charlie Rose.

I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. The problem is if you take that attitude of sort of gloating over Trump's defeat, then you're playing into the very thing that gave rise to Trump in the first place. Which is a feeling that the elites think that they're smarter than you.

And now former President Donald Trump announcing he has chosen Ohio.

US Senator JD.

Vance as is running me on his the never Trump guy, Well, he's changed his tune.

For the last eight years, President Trump has given everything he has to fight for the people of our country. He didn't need politics, but the country needed him now. Prior running for president, he was one of the most successful businessmen in the world. He had everything anyone could ever want in a life. And yet instead of choosing the easy path, he chose to endure abuse, slander and persecution.

And he did it because he loves this country.

So who is the real jed Vance? Nick Jensen is the opinion editor at The Australian. Nick. First of all, JD. Van turns forty today. He's a millennial. So how much does that matter when we think about his political significance.

I think it's extremely important because in so many ways, the way in which JD. Vance has discussed is through the prism of Trump and him being a kind of maga air if you like. But I think he represents so much more. I think the millennial aspect really can't be underestimated. I mean, if you think about some of the things he stands for, so just to run through a couple of them, you know, he's skeptical about stock markets, he's skeptical about big tech companies. He's keen on tariffs,

Appealing hillbilly ellogy.

Really for many people who after the election who were wondering how Trump rose, the book was kind of like a manual, wasn't it too?

This is why.

So it's in the first instance, a remarkable story, his story of childhood trauma.

But it's exactly that. It's a guide book.

Isn't it about how you can kind of improve your lives? And it's also a guidebook or a kind of history of the complexities of this working class rage that has been there amongst the kinds of people he's grown up with that has raised him. That you know, they've been sold a pup. As far as they're concerned, the American dream is broken. It doesn't work with them. Their jobs have gone, wages stagnated, and the kinds of russ Belt ruins in which they live just nothing works anymore.

So I didn't write this book because I've accomplished something extraordinary. I wrote this book because I've achieved something quite ordinary, which doesn't happen to most kids who grow up like me.

This is Jdva. It's narrating part of his book Hill Billy Elegy.

The statistics tell you that kids like me face a grim future. That if they're lucky, they'll manage to avoid welfare, and if they're unlucky, they'll die of a heroin overdose. Whatever talents I have, I almost squandered until a handful of loving people rescued me. That is the real story of my life, and that is why I wrote this book.

He has said since accepting the vice presidential nomination that Trump's brilliance as president changed his mind, and it's okay for people to change their minds. Of course, that's what happened to him, so he hasn't really repudiated his previous views about life or about America has he it's more his views about Trump.

Absolutely, I think the vision that jd. Vance has just adds a new layer to TRUMPSM. He's modernizing it. So we already know that the kind of core tenets of TRUMPSM is part of the JD. Vance story. In fact, as we're saying, it's probably built out of it as a kind of core text or guidebook, as you say, but there's new aspects to it, some of the things that I was just listing before about being skeptical about

Do you think he's charming.

I think he's polished. I think he's sharp. I think he's very focused. I think he's aggressive. I think his story makes him compelling. I wouldn't describe him as charming or charismatic, to be honest.

Coming up, the story of JD. Vance evolves as he becomes part of the Republican political machine, how does he handle his own history? And speaking of evolving stories, make sure you go to the Australian dot com dot au are subscribers get all the best news and analysis from here and around the world. Twenty four to seven. Now to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee twenty twenty four.

I was lucky, despite the closing factories and the growing addiction in towns like mine, in my life, I had a guardian angel by my side. Was an old woman who could barely walk, but she was tough as nails. I called her Mamma, the name we Hillbillies gave to our grandmothers.

And my Mamma died shortly before I.

Left for Iraq in two thousand and five, and when we went through things, we found nineteen loaded handguns. They were stashed all over her house, under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on, and it occurred to us that towards the end of her life, mamma couldn't get around so well. And so this frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was with an arm's length of whatever she needed to protect her family.

That's who we fight for. That's American spirit.

This is the Jdvans of today, a man who's honed his personal story into a sharp political weapon.

Why are you such a compelling figure?

Is the narrative, which is obviously what runs like a you know, electricity through Hillbilly elegy is so powerful. I mean it's embedded in him. You saw it in the Republican National Convention speech. It's all there, and so it makes him such a powerful figure to.

Draw on that.

I think one of the moving moments in the Republican National Convention recently was when J. D. Evans's mother, Beverly, who we know led a life of extreme dysfunctional and abuse an addiction. She stood in the crowd and people applauded her.

I'm proud to say that tonight my mom is here, ten years, clean and sober.

I love your.

Mom, and you know, Mom, I was thinking it'll be ten years. Officially, in January of twenty twenty five, and if President Trump's okay with it, let's have the same in the White House.

And she's part of the kind of reform, the personal reform that he's advocating. It's a pretty remarkable.

Story, especially when American politicians have really hidden the dark things about their families forever.

Absolutely, and we're talking about serious dysfunction. I mean, for those who haven't read He'll Billy Ellergy or watched the film. I mean, we're talking about relatives setting each other on fire.

We're talking about suicide.

Attempts, We're talking about, you know, driving cars off the road. And it's a really intense story of childhood trauma kind of at the heart of it.

They kind of a more intimate look at it.

Yeah, and Jodie Vance at the center of it is an incredibly vulnerable little figure. You know, this little boy who just desperately wants his mother's love, has to deal with a string of kind of stepfather figures who come through the family, and ultimately relies on Mammal, his grandma, to be the force of stability in his life.

Ma'am Moll was in so many ways a woman of contradiction. She loved the lord, ladies and gentlemen. She was a woman of very deep Christian faith, but she also loved the F word. Now. She once told me, when she found out that I was spending too much time with a local kid who was known for dealing drugs, that if I ever hung out with that kid again, she would run him over with her car.

That's true, and she said, JD. No one will ever find out about it.

She's a remarkable character in the story. Isn't she the grandmother?

I mean?

But for her, I think she's probably the most decisive figure in the childhood, isn't she Because she is the person that insists on the kind of inner dignity of people whose lives have gone wrong or not in the way they expected. And she really drives home to him that personal responsibility is really the only antidote for him to improve his life, to become somewhat and to move away from all the dysfunction and suffering.

A former friend of his name Sophia Nelson. Sophia's a transgender woman and public defender who once had a close relationship with Jade Vance. She's leaked dozens of decade old emails that the pair of them exchanged and she talked about him on CNN.

What I've seen as a chameleon, someone who is able to change their positions and their values depending on what will amass them political power and wealth.

He reveals himself as someone is very thoughtful about the kinds of things that I think he would now say are left liberal elite obsessions. You know, he's been very thoughtful about the gender identity of this person who is friends with. He's completely accepting of her. He in fact apologizes for having described to in Hillbilly Ellogy as gay, which he realizes perhaps not the way she would choose to describe herself.

So the JD.

Evans that I was friends with for over a decade was compassionate and we've frequently disagreed, but he always approached conversations with respect and kindness. And what we've seen with Donald Trump is a callousness and a cruelty in the way he talks about people, a bullying right. He's a bully, and he calls people names. And when Jad decided to run for the Senate in twenty twenty two, he started adopting that similar persona so anathema to.

Who he used to be. The JD. Evans of today is bombastic. He isn't afraid to offend people all start thoughts. He is talking to Tucker Culson in twenty twenty one.

We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.

He hasn't apologized for those comments, by the way, but he did recently make vi clarification.

I've got nothing against Kats, I've got nothing against Oggs, and I've got one dog at home and I love them.

The substance of what I said, I'm sorry, it's true.

That brings us to the big question about JD.

Vance.

Was he telling the truth about himself back then and now he's pretending to be someone else, or was he pretending to be someone else back then and now we see the real JD.

Evans.

I mean, there's people on both sides that are very clear on what they think about that I don't know. I mean, clearly, political opportunism and changing one's character and even values is always going to be a thing in politics. Quite whether he's changed them to such an extent in order to be Trump's running mate, you know, it's difficult

If Trump loses this election, do you think that will be the end of Jodey Vance's career or can he execute another one?

I don't know, but I think one thing is for sure. You mentioned the Republican establishment. I think if jd Vance goes on to become vice president and who knows, maybe even president, it's possible it will forever change the right in the US. So in some ways jd Vance is kind of more consequential than Trump because of some of those add ons, because of that new intellectual background, because of the millennial aspect. I think jd Vance is here to stay. And also happy birthday.

Nicholas Jensen is the Australian's opinion editor. If you'd like to read some more of our wildly varying analysis and opinion about the US election and more, head to the Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us on the front. Our team is Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombs Leat sammaglou Jasper League, Tiffany Dimak, Kristin Amiot and me Claire Harvey