US presidential candidate Donald Trump has named JD Vance, the Ohio senator who has aligned himself with the populist right, as his running mate at the Republican National Convention, as per The Guardian.
J.D. Vance, 39, has been a fierce critic of the US military aid to Ukraine, saying that the assistance would only harm Ukrainians, not Russia’s occupation. He also voiced support for exchanging Ukrainian territories for a ceasefire.
On 10 December 2023, ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the US, Vance stated on CNN:
“We have a food crisis that’s getting worse because of the prolonged war in Eastern Europe. We have an energy crisis that’s threatening to swamp multiple allied governments in Western Europe. What’s in America’s best interest is to accept Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians, and we need to bring this war to a close. When I think about the great human tragedy here, hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans innocent have been killed in this conflict. The thing that’s in our interest and in theirs is to stop the killing,” said Vance.
Notably, Vance is currently one of Trump’s main supporters in the Senate, although he previously criticized the politician, according to Fox News.
Vance was a critic of Trump when the former president first ran for the White House in the 2016 cycle.
However, he eventually supported Trump, praising the former president’s tenure in the White House. In a Fox News interview in 2021, he apologized for his earlier criticism of Trump.
“Look, I was wrong about Donald Trump. I didn’t think he was going to be a good president.
He was a great president, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term,” Vance told Fox News’ Bret Baier in an interview last month.
The US presidential election is scheduled for November 2024. The main candidates are Joe Biden, who currently heads the White House, and his predecessor, Republican Donald Trump.
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