‘This Is the Pick of a Very Confident Presidential Nominee’: Four Columnists Size Up J.D. Vance

Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, hosted an online conversation with the Times Opinion columnists Ross Douthat, David French, Michelle Goldberg and Bret Stephens to discuss Donald Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance as his running mate — why Mr. Trump picked him, how Mr. Vance could help the ticket, what’s surprising and unusual about the vice-presidential nominee, and what if anything worries our columnists about Mr. Vance.

Patrick Healy: The answer to one of the biggest questions of the presidential election has now been revealed: Donald Trump has chosen J.D. Vance as his running mate. What was the first thing that popped into your minds when you heard Trump had picked the first-term senator from Ohio and why?

Bret Stephens: My first thought was a memory: In 2016, on the eve of the election, Vance and I were guests on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN show. At the time, he was still a Never Trumper. Later, we took a walk around Columbus Circle and commiserated about the sad state of the Republican Party with Trump as its leader. Another reminder that what was once a unified anti-Trump conservative movement wound up moving in very different directions.

Ross Douthat: If elected he will be the first vice president of the United States with whom I was friends before he became a politician. That’s quite a strange feeling and one that mostly inspired me to say some prayers for him and for the country.

Michelle Goldberg: God help the people of Ukraine. As Vance told Steve Bannon, “I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

David French: I share your concerns about Ukraine, Michelle, and that was my first thought as well. A century from now, historians will be talking about the war in Ukraine. Trump’s choice sends a message to America’s allies, especially Ukraine, that they might find themselves facing Russia largely on their own. To the extent that Vance will have a real voice in the administration (and we should never assume that of any vice president), he’ll be pushing Trump away from Ukraine. He’ll be a China hawk, but that’s cold comfort to the Ukrainian people or to the European alliance.