Vance against Wall Street, immigrants, China and allies
The vice-presidential candidate calls Trump the 'last and best hope for the country'. And then: 'We will make sure our allies pay their dues. No more generosity"
4' min read
4' min read
It was JD Vance's big night. Of the speech with which he introduced himself to a country that still knows little about him. Which knows little of the rising star of the Republican Party transformed by Donald Trump, who chose the 39-year-old senator from Ohio as his vice presidential candidate and possible political heir. And in his speech to the audience at the Milwaukee Convention, Vance claimed his own transformation of the party into a big 'tent' inspired by economic populism under the banner of America First, ready to renew the country and free it from old politics.
"The last hope for the country"
.Vance formally accepted the nomination for vice-president amidst the enthusiasm of the delegates at the Fiserv Forum calling for the unity of the country. Claiming that the Republican Party is today the party of free discussion of the best ideas. But first and foremost affirming, with confidence, that the unity of the party itself will be decisive in the November elections for the White House against Joe Biden's Democrats, who have abandoned rural and small-town America: "We are united to win," he told the delegates. 'Donald Trump is the last and best hope for America to regain what we have lost,' he continued.
"We will no longer listen to Wall Street"
.When he switched to the message of substance, he gave substance to the new populism. He denounced traditional free trade agreements such as Nafta, and globalisation with China's entry into the WTO, claiming that current Democratic President Joe Biden had signed both. He went on to put big business interests in his crosshairs: 'We're going to stop listening to the needs of Wall Street, we're going to take care of working people. Free trade and pro-big business agendas have been pillars of the pre-Trump Republican Party.
Biden "symbol of the corrupt elite"
.Vance went on to criticise Biden as a long-time politician, part of a corrupt elite and establishment, who needs to be changed to help the American people and the middle and working classes, who today would be crushed by a crisis highlighted by the caravan. "He has been in politics since before I was born," he said, "and for half a century he has been the champion of all the initiatives that have made America poorer and weaker.
He boasted that under Trump, when he was in the White House, the economy had been the best ever. And that a new Trump administration will be pro-working man, pro-workers, whether unionized or not. No more importing labour from abroad, he said. No more foreign-dependent supply chains. "We will build factories here with American workers, protect wages and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building its middle classes at our expense."
