What Trump Sees in J.D. Vance, His New Apprentice

Donald Trump’s contempt for the Washington establishment is well known. He challenges, confronts and subverts its institutions, its media, its consultants, its euphemisms and its unwritten codes of conduct. Choosing Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate is the latest example of the former president’s willingness to flout political convention.

Previous vice-presidential nominees were selected to forge party unity, capture a crucial swing state or help an outsider president navigate Washington. Mr. Vance doesn’t fit these criteria. But then Mr. Trump has never been a traditional candidate. And he probably had more on his mind than 2024 when he put Mr. Vance on the ticket. He was probably thinking of 2028 and beyond — and where he wants the G.O.P. to go.

The last time Mr. Trump named a running mate, he had more pressing concerns. He was the underdog to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Many Republicans, especially social and religious conservatives, viewed him with suspicion.

Mr. Trump selected Mike Pence, who had close ties to evangelical Christian voters and had served 12 years in Congress, to allay their fears. Mr. Pence was the governor of a Midwestern state. The idea was that he could help Mr. Trump deal with insiders and power brokers.

The Trump-Pence alliance held until Jan. 6, 2021. Now, having narrowly escaped an assassin’s bullet and being constitutionally limited to one more term, Mr. Trump is prioritizing loyalty and legacy over qualities that past presidents have looked for in vice-presidential nominees.

Mr. Trump appears to value Mr. Vance’s evolution from opponent to stalwart. Mr. Vance has the zeal of a convert to Mr. Trump and to Trumpism and is unlikely to use the vice-presidential residence as a base of operations for pro-immigration, interventionist Republicans. He defends Mr. Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election and has adopted Mr. Trump’s enemies as his own.