How Donald Trump Chose JD Vance as His Vice Presidential Nominee

A day before Donald Trump was due to choose a running mate, after months of private conversations with all corners of his orbit, the former president got a call from a new voice.

That person, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, was one of several people who urged Trump in the final moments to choose the Ohio senator, JD Vance . On Monday (15), Trump finally announced his choice: Vance would be his running mate.

How Trump chose Vance, a freshman senator from the heartland half his age, is a story that illustrates the former president’s performative instincts and his chronic indecision. It’s a long listen reminiscent of Trump’s years as host of “The Apprentice.”

A steady stream of rumors, many started by Trump himself. Vocal campaigners behind the scenes. A secret vetting process that left candidates in the dark for weeks. And a surprise revelation that added intrigue to the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Trump announced his decision Monday afternoon on his Truth Social platform, telling his followers that Vance was “the best fit” for the job. Just moments earlier, Trump had shared the information with Vance himself, according to multiple people familiar with the call.

“He just said, ‘Look, I think we need to save this country. I think you’re the guy who can help me the best,’” Vance told Fox News in his first interview since his formal nomination as the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate. “‘You can help me govern. You can help me win. You can help me in some of these Midwestern states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and so on.’”

“The Apprentice: Vice Presidential Version”

The political partnership between Trump and Vance was not an instant meeting. Earlier this year, as Trump worked to seal the Republican nomination, Vance had not yet been approached by the Trump campaign about joining him on the ticket.

But as Trump solidified his position and the betting pool for the vice-presidential nomination began, Vance’s team began to hear his name mentioned. Trump, known for throwing out names himself during dinners with donors and allies, was one of the catalysts for the initial interest in Vance.

The first time Vance’s team began to realize that Trump was formally considering him was when he received the vetting paperwork for the vice presidential nomination process in early June.

The relationship between the two blossomed in the spring and summer during joint appearances at campaign events and closed-door fundraisers in California, where Vance, a former hedge fund investor, helped Trump connect with wealthy tech entrepreneurs — including Vance’s close friend, prominent tech investor David Sacks.

Their final meeting before Monday’s decision took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Saturday (13), sources familiar with the meeting told CNN and occurred just hours before the former president was scheduled to travel to Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally that would end with an assassination attempt on his life. A source familiar with the discussion described their time together as “the final interview before I get the job.”

Vance left Palm Beach confident in his chances but was not certain he would win the nomination, the sources said. Meanwhile, Trump has continued to flirt publicly and privately with other potential candidates, including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, both of whom also met with the former president last week.

Behind-the-scenes pressure for Burgum and Rubio continued into the final hours, as Trump fielded calls from people urging him to consider others, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Trump has spent the past 24 hours undecided about his pick, multiple sources told CNN leaving even those in his inner circle guessing as to his final choice.

The steady stream of calls echoed his 2016 selection process, when he wavered on Mike Pence even after selecting him. During the call where Pence learned he would be on the Republican ticket, Trump never formally offered the job to the Indiana governor, only alluding to their partnership.

Several Republican donors have been pushing Youngkin as Trump’s pick in recent days, as it became clear that Rubio and Burgum might not make the cut. A subset of the donor group did not want Vance as the pick and was pushing for anyone but him to be chosen.

But Vance also had powerful voices defending him, including the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., a close friend and ardent supporter, and former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon, who praised the Ohio senator as the best heir to Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement until almost the day he was sent to prison earlier this month.

Vance also had the support of Tucker Carlson, even as the conservative commentator’s former boss, Fox News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch, directly lobbied Trump to pick Burgum and his former Fox News prime-time friend Sean Hannity campaigned for Rubio.

Together, Trump Jr., Bannon and Carlson wielded tremendous influence as vanguards of the former president’s MAGA movement and high-profile influencers among his right-wing supporters. They argued that Vance not only had the strongest relationship with Trump but would also be the most loyal if he were selected to serve alongside the former president, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

They also argued that Mr. Vance could appeal to working-class voters seen as key to winning battleground states in November because he grew up in a poor town north of Cincinnati. And Mr. Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance — the daughter of Indian immigrants — was someone they thought could appeal to minority voters, the sources said.

Sacks and real estate investor Steve Witkoff, a close friend of Trump, also lobbied directly and belatedly for Vance. Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks have also reached out.

Trump Jr. also made a last-minute push for Vance as his father wavered over the pick, a source familiar with the matter told CNN urging him over a late-night dinner at Mar-a-Lago to choose the Ohio Republican.

Trump Jr. told CNN who told his father over dinner: “Look, I think I saw him on TV. I saw him making an argument against the Democrats. I don’t think anyone is more articulate than him, and I think his story, his background, has really helped us in a lot of the places that you’re going to need it.”

Even Trump’s son, however, said he was kept in the dark until it was posted on Truth Social — a remarkable secret kept until the first day of the convention.

A change of heart

It wasn’t long ago that Vance called himself an “anti-Trump guy.” In the early days of Trump’s rise in the Republican Party, Vance, then best known as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” was a vocal critic of the TV star-turned-politician, questioning whether Trump was “America’s Hitler” in private messages. He said he would vote third-party in 2016.

“I can’t stand Trump,” Vance said in an interview with NPR at the time. “I think he’s toxic and he’s taking the white working class to a very dark place.”

After the “Access Hollywood” recording emerged showing Trump bragging about groping women, Vance wrote in a now-deleted social media post: “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us. As we apologize for this man, may the Lord help us.”

Democrats have shared such moments repeatedly in recent weeks, demonstrating the challenge for Trump in choosing such a vocal former adversary. But Vance has since distanced himself from those statements, telling CNN in May: “I was wrong about him.”

“I didn’t think he would be a good president,” Vance said. “And I was very, very proud to be proven wrong. It’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to elect him.”

Vance’s change of heart was a politically prudent move. He entered a contested primary for an open Ohio Senate seat as a vocal supporter of the former president, who ultimately endorsed Vance over other conservative alternatives. Vance went on to win that 2022 primary and the general election.

On Monday, as Vance was being nominated by his party, a Pennsylvania delegate joked, “If only it were that easy in the Senate race.”

And therein lies one of the biggest risks for Trump in naming Vance as his running mate. He is relatively inexperienced and largely untested. He won his Senate seat two years ago by 6 points — 19 points behind Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, on the same ticket.

But Trump grew increasingly comfortable with Vance the more he watched the 39-year-old defend him on television. A Yale graduate and gifted orator, Vance proved an articulate and effective messenger, becoming particularly adept at deflecting tough questions about the former president’s legal troubles.

Other vice presidential candidates had flaws, too. While Trump liked Burgum because he had the right look for the job, many around him never saw the national appeal in the relatively unknown former software executive from North Dakota.

Trump, meanwhile, has ruled out Rubio over concerns about their shared Florida residence. Trump has long feared the legal system would be used against him, and that concern has resonated with him in recent days, even as Rubio allies have insisted it would be no problem for the senator to move elsewhere.

In the end, Trump’s comfort level with Vance prevailed.

“(Trump) has rightly said that we have been very, very close for a long time, but especially since I endorsed you in 2022,” Vance said in his Fox News interview. “And I would not have won this race without Donald Trump’s endorsement. The president’s trust in me then and his partnership since then is something I value very much.”

*With information from Kristen Holmes and Kit Maher, from CNN.

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