Victory with Trump's blessing: The "ass kiss" has paid off for Vance

In Ohio, "Hillbilly Elegy" author and venture investor J.

Victory with Trump's blessing: The "ass kiss" has paid off for Vance

In Ohio, "Hillbilly Elegy" author and venture investor J.D. Vance's election to the US Senate. It's also a win for ex-President Trump, who poked fun at how badly his former critic wanted his support during the campaign.

The image above his Twitter profile includes two words central to J.D.'s political biography. Vance: "Trump endorsed", endorsed by Trump. The political newcomer did it with this seal of approval: He won a Senate seat in the state of Ohio - against a Democratic candidate who was ahead in the polls for a long time.

You probably don't offend the 38-year-old if you assume that he was downright begging for Donald Trump's support. Vance became known as a Trump critic. He is the author of the best-selling book, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he writes autobiographically about the Midwest's industrial decline. The book was published in 2016, four months before the presidential election that Trump won against Democrat Hillary Clinton. At that time, Vance became a kind of Trump explainer, whom he also sharply criticized - both publicly and privately. In a text message to a friend at the time, he wrote that Trump could become "America's Hitler."

At least publicly, Vance changed his stance. In 2020 he supported Trump in the presidential campaign and apologized for previous attacks. He called him the "best president of my life" and even adopted his conspiracy myth that his 2020 election victory was "stolen". With success: In the end, Vance received Trump's "endorsement" for his Senate candidacy. This support did not help in every case. In Philadelphia, for example, Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, who was supported by Trump, was unable to prevail against Democrat John Fetterman. But Trump was helpful for Vance, without him he would hardly have survived the primaries.

Ohio is a rust belt state that has been suffering from the effects of uncushioned structural change for decades. A few years ago, Ohio was still a classic swing state in which the Republicans won elections and the Democrats won elections. In the meantime, however, the state is considered "red", as republican. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump won the Ohio presidential election by a wide margin.

So Vance had good reasons to curry favor with Trump. "Like some others, J.D. Vance has said some not-so-great things about me in the past, but he gets it now," Trump said in April, while officially endorsing Vance. "He's our best chance of winning what can be a very tough race." During a campaign appearance five months later, however, Trump made fun of the candidate: "J.D. kisses my ass, he wants my support so much," said the ex-president, while Vance stood next to him on stage. Vance later dismissed the affront as a joke.

Vance isn't the only Republican to have morphed from Trump critic to Trump supporter. Particularly spectacular examples are former presidential candidate Ted Cruz and Senator Lindsey Graham. Cruz had a dispute with Trump in 2016, in which Trump even claimed that Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Graham, on the other hand, said in 2016 that if the Republicans nominated Trump, "we will be destroyed - and we will have earned it". In the meantime, Graham has also submitted to Trump.

In theory, of course, such changes can always be an expression of honest conviction. It is more likely, however, that it is the result of cynical calculation. One reason for Vance's change of heart is that the German-American tech investor Peter Thiel had already supported him with ten million dollars last year. It wasn't even clear then if Vance would survive the Ohio primary. Thiel, a big Trump fan, was Vance's boss until a few years ago. Because Vance comes from the working class, but is now - after studying law at the elite Yale University - a millionaire.

The question now is what Vance makes of his success and what it means for Trump. In his ten-minute acceptance speech in the state capital of Columbus, Vance thanked his family, numerous employees and his late grandmother. However, one name was missing from the long list: Trump.