Trump's US vice-presidential candidate: what JD Vance said about Ukraine

39-year-old Senator from Ohio James David Vance, whom Donald Trump has named as his candidate for vice-president of the United States, far from always supporting the current nominee of the Republican Party and several years ago called him the most derogatory words. In addition, Vance has consistently opposed American military aid to Ukraine, while he does not support the Russian invasion, BBC writes and describes, what is known about politician, who in if Trump wins in November this year may become Vice-President of the United States, writes UNN.

"I have always been anti-Trump. I never liked him ." "God, what a idiot he is!" "He seems like a creep to me." These are just a few of the statements Vance made about Donald Trump that he made in 2016, shortly after the publication of his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" that turned him into a celebrity.

In that same year, he wrote the following private message to a colleague on Facebook: "I sometimes think Trump is a cynical asshole, and sometimes think he's America's Hitler.

But just a few years later, the publication says, Vance has become one of Trump's most trusted allies. Now the senator from Ohio has become his partner in the electoral race - and the main contender for the nomination for the presidential candidacy of Republicans in 2028. His reputation as a Republican senator and roots in the American Midwest would favor this.

Trump announces J.D. Vance as his vice presidential candidateJul 15 2024, 07:45 PM • 104390 views

In the Senate, as indicated, he was a consistent supporter of the conservative agenda: he supported populist economic measures and remained one of the most prominent opponents of aid to Ukraine.

What Vance said and wrote about Ukraine and russia

Vance, according to the publication, belongs to the number of U.S. senators who opposed the bill to allocate a new aid package to Ukraine in the amount of 60 billion dollars. In April of this year, Vance published a column in the New York Times titled "Figures on Ukraine don't add up," in which he explained the reasons for this position.

"Ukraine's problem is not Republican Party, it's math," Vance wrote. - Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can find, even with the implementation of draconian mobilization policies. And it needs more equipment than the U.S. can provide." 

Vance argued that Ukraine would have to accept the "harsh reality," adopt a defensive strategy and go to negotiations with russia as soon as possible, the publication wrote.

Many Republicans and Democrats agree with such an opinion, as indicated in , recalling that the collective economic and military power of Western countries assisting Ukraine far exceeds Russian capabilities. The same position is held by most European countries and the NATO bloc, which at the last summit decided to increase support for Ukraine to ensure its victory.

As recalled by the American publication The Hill, at the Munich Conference on security in February, Vance supported Trump's foreign policy doctrine based on the principle of "America First".

Following the former U.S. president, he said that Europe should take more responsibility for its own security, particularly in the field of arms production. Thus, in Vance's view, the U.S. could pay more attention to the Asian region and confront an aggressive China.

He also, as the publication points out, called for dialog with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I never called Putin a kind and friendly person. I said he is a man with certain interests, and the United States should respond to this man with certain interests," The Hill quoted Vance as saying in Munich.

"The fact that he's a bad guy doesn't mean that we can't maintain basic diplomatic contact with him on the basis of prioritizing American interests. There are a lot of bad guys all over the world, and I'm much more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe," Vance also said.