JD Vance: the VP candidate raised in a Rust Belt home by a drug-addict mother

He has been a vocal critic of US aid to Ukraine and moderated his position on abortion to align with Trump’s more ambiguous rhetoric on the issue. Able to effortlessly transition between his roles as media attack dog, polished Yale law school debater and a relatable Middle American, he has shown his skill for tailoring Trump’s message to the audience at hand. Speaking to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the vice presidential candidate suggested white, middle class parents are allowing their children to undergo sex changes because it makes it easier to get into an Ivy League university, in an appeal to the show’s majority-male listeners. “But the one way those people can participate in the DEI bureaucracy in this country is to be trans.” Doubling down on transgender issues, which the Trump team has hammered in the late stages of the campaign, Mr Vance accused pharmaceutical companies of pushing children to transition in order to profit from the sale of conversation therapy drugs, railed against transgender women competing in sports and said he and Trump were going to win the “normal gay guy vote”. The Trump campaign believes Mr Vance’s ability to connect with Rust Belt voters, in the all-important swing state of Pennsylvania in particular, will be a major asset on their path to the White House.