Eight years ago, during the US presidential campaign in 2016, JD Vance was highly critical of Donald Trump, referring to him in public as an “idiot” and “reprehensible” and in private as “America’s Hitler”.

Come Monday when Trump announced Vance as his VP, he had turned into a staunch Trump supporter despite the limited company he had with other Republicans. Among Trump’s closest allies, former “never Trumper” James David Vance stands out.

Critics on both sides wonder whether Vance, the author of the popular book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ and a freshman senator from Ohio, is truly motivated by principles at all. However, Trump and his advisors see Vance’s metamorphosis as sincere – he is a political convert who shares many of Trump’s views – isolationist/ economic nationalist rather than interventionist/neo-liberal.

Vance’s stand against the provision of US assistance to Ukraine in its war against Russia has been welcomed by Trump’s conservatives, though it has not been well received by some of his colleagues in the Senate, Reuters reported. 

The selection of Vance, who was born in a poor family in southern Ohio, may appeal more to Trump in the Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Michigan while his conservative views can lose the moderates.

Vance served in the Marine Corps, graduated from Yale Law School and had a successful career as a venture capitalist before writing the book “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016, which explored the social decay of his hometown and Trump’s appeal to poor white voters.

Vance was initially an open Trump critic, whereby he condemned him in public and in private, but his loyalty shifted over time allowing Trump to endorse him in his 2022 Senate bid. Such a stance on trade and immigration policies signified a transition from targeting Trump’s persona to the policies he advocated.