At GOP convention, Vance calls Trump 'America's last, best hope'

Sen. J.D. Vance smiles and waves near a lectern on stage at the Republican National Convention

July 17, 2024 Updated 9:12 PM PT

MILWAUKEE — In his first public address as the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance kept the focus on his boss — a trait shared by those who tend to stay in former President Trump’s favor.

Speaking Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Vance used his upbringing in Middletown, Ohio — made famous by his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy” — to highlight points from the Trump campaign. He decried inflation, promised to prevent the U.S. from becoming involved in foreign wars and pledged to stop “importing foreign labor.”

“President Trump represents America’s last, best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again: a country where a working-class boy born far from the halls of power can stand on this stage as the next vice president of the United States of America,” Vance said.

His speech was riddled with anecdotes from his Ohio upbringing. His mother, Bev Vance, who struggled with addiction and mental health issues, sat in the audience and mouthed to him, “I love you, J.D.”

“I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” Vance said.

Vance showed himself as a confident, affable speaker, frequently making off-the-cuff jokes and at one point, turning to the camera and telling his children watching on television to “get your butts in bed.”

The crowd rewarded him by breaking into chants of “J.D.”

Usha Vance, who introduced her husband, sought to humanize him, as political spouses often do. She described meeting him at Yale Law School, and the unlikely friendship and romance between a working-class man who was raised by his grandmother and a middle-class woman who was raised in San Diego by two parents.

“That J.D. and I can meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country,” Usha Vance said.

The former Marine’s “idea of a good time” when they met was playing with puppies and watching the movie “Babe,” she said. Once they became a couple, she said, he adapted to her vegetarian diet and learned to cook Indian food for her mother.

“The J.D. I knew then is the same J.D. I know today — except for that beard,” Usha Vance quipped.

Like most of the speakers before him, Vance acknowledged Saturday’s attempted assassination of Trump, which injured his ear. He lauded the now-famous picture of Trump immediately after the shooting, blood on his cheek, with his fist in the air.

“His instinct was for us, his country,” Vance said. “To call us for something greater, something higher.”

Moments after the shooting, Vance wrote on X that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Despite that, he alluded in his speech to Trump’s call for “unity” since the shooting, saying: “We love this country, and we are united to win. I think our disagreements actually make us stronger.”

Speaking earlier in the evening, Donald Trump Jr. pointed to his father’s actions in the moments after the shooting to argue that he has the grit needed to right this country.

“He didn’t just show his character. He showed America’s character,” Trump Jr. said. “When he stood up, with blood on his face, and the flag at his back, the world saw a spirit that could never be broken. And that is the true spirit of America.”

Later Wednesday night, Michael Tyler, the Biden-Harris campaign’s communications director, issued a statement calling Vance “unprepared, unqualified, and willing to do anything Donald Trump demands.”

Tyler called Vance “Project 2025 in human form ... a rubber stamp for Donald Trump to become a dictator on ‘day one.’”

Vance’s headliner address capped the third night of the Republican National Convention, where a jovial atmosphere pervaded the Milwaukee auditorium.

Trump, a white bandage on his ear, watched the evening’s proceedings from his seat. The former president is scheduled to give the week’s final address Thursday.

Trump smiled proudly as his 17-year-old granddaughter, Kai Trump, said he was “just a normal grandpa” who sneaked her candy and asked about her golf game.

Kai’s father, Trump Jr., painted a dystopian image of the country under Democratic rule, a lawless nation being overrun by illegal immigrants, with a cost of living that was out of reach for most Americans, a government focused on the elites and schools more focused on indoctrinating young people than educating them.

Reportedly one of the key backers of Vance — a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist — as his father’s vice presidential pick, Trump Jr. pointed to the friendship between the two men — one from Appalachia and the other from Trump Tower — as proof of the nation’s promise. “Now we’re both fighting side by side to save the country we love,” he said.

And he told undecided or unengaged voters that they faced a stark choice in November.

“It’s a choice between one team that wants to build this country up and another that wants to tear this country down. It’s a choice between people who are proud of America and people who are ashamed of America. And ultimately, it’s a choice between America last and America first,” Trump Jr. said.

Earlier in the evening, a couple of Californians took to the stage to pump up the crowd for the Trump-Vance ticket. Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence under Trump, began his speech by greeting fellow Californians in the room. Grenell, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Germany, railed against foreign policy under President Biden, referencing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

“Donald Trump doesn’t care if you’re gay or straight, Black, brown or white, or what gender you are,” Grenell said. “He knows that we are all Americans and that it’s time to put America first.”

Peter Navarro, a former UC Irvine professor who was released from prison earlier Wednesday, was greeted with a rousing and extended audience cheer.

Navarro, who worked in the Trump administration, was imprisoned for two counts of being in contempt of Congress after he refused to testify to the House Select Committee about Jan. 6.

“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump — careful, they will come for you,” Navarro told the gathering.

His speech followed a frequent line from the Trump campaign, that the U.S. Justice Department under Biden and Democrats targets political enemies. “I went to prison so you won’t have to,” he said.

Navarro was the first among Trump administration officials to go to prison.

Mehta reported from Milwaukee, Pinho from Los Angeles.