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Sen. J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s pick to be vice president, speaks at the Republican National Convention held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024. (Reuters/Yonhap)

Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, whom Donald Trump chose to be his running mate on the Republican ticket, vowed that America would “make sure our allies share in the burden of securing world peace.”

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Wednesday (local time), Vance declared, “No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.” Vance went on to declare that Trump, if elected, “will send our kids to war only when we must.”

“Together we will protect the wages of American workers and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens,” Vance continued, relaying a hard-line message against China while indicating a potential return of economic protectionism. 

Vance pointed to “unlimited global trade” as a factor in the downfall of the American working class, with China being the main culprit. 

“When I was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named Joe Biden gave China a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good American middle-class manufacturing jobs,” Vance said. 

“We're done sacrificing supply chains to unlimited global trade, and we're going to stamp more and more products with that beautiful label, ‘Made in the USA.’”

“In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war,” Vance continued. 

Vance described how the people of such small towns have been “cast aside and forgotten by America's ruling class in Washington.”

Vance did not mince his words. Like his running mate, his comments were combative and went after all countries that he views as contrary to US interests, be they friend or foe.  

The Republican Party is hoping that Vance, born into a poor working-class family before making it big as a venture capitalist, will be able to shore up support from his own district of Ohio and neighboring battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania. His speech catered to this. 

“America’s ruling class wrote the checks. Communities like mine paid the price,” Vance said in his speech. “We’re done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We’ll commit to the working man.”

“We’re going to build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers,” he said. 

Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, introduced her husband before his speech, saying, “It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream, a boy from Middletown, Ohio.” 

When it came to his running mate, Vance called Trump “one of the most successful businessmen in the world” prior to entering politics, and praised him for choosing to “endure abuse, slander and persecution” rather than “choosing the easy path.”

In 2016, when Trump first ran for office, Vance belittled him as “America’s Hitler” and an “idiot.” He also said that the way Trump placed the blame on China and outsourcing for the fall of the American working class was an oversimplified way of looking at things that would not fix the problem, a stark contrast to his current rhetoric. 

By Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

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