Donald Trump has chosen J.D. Vance as his running mate, the former president announced on Monday.
Vance, a first-term Republican senator from Ohio, was widely expected to be Trump’s vice presidential pick as the pool of potential hopefuls narrowed earlier in the day. Just hours before the announcement, several outlets reported that Gov. Doug Burgum (R-N.D.) and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) were informed by the Trump campaign that they would not be on the 2024 ticket. Others previously thought to be on Trump’s short list included Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), U.S. House Rep. Elise Stefanink (R-N.Y.), and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.
In a post on his own tech platform, Truth Social, Trump lauded Vance as the “person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”
“J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association,” he said, adding that he “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond.”
The choice of Vance, who rose to fame as the author of the controversial memoir Hillbilly Elegy, was likely intended to help Trump shore up support among white, lower-income voters in the Midwest, where President Joe Biden is considered vulnerable in the 2024 race. According to poll averages from FiveThirtyEight, Trump leads Biden by more than nine points in Vance’s home state of Ohio, and Biden also trails in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Biden would likely need to win all three of the latter states to stave off a second Trump term, with swing states like Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada also looking vulnerable in 2024.
A former critic of Trump who recast himself as a politician in the MAGA model, Vance’s LGBTQ+ record differs very little from the man at the top of his ticket. During his two years in the U.S. Senate, Vance opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified federal same-sex marriage rights in the event that Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2004 ruling legalizing marriage equality, is repealed by the Supreme Court. He also authored the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would make it a class C felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, to provide gender-affirming surgery to trans minors. (This despite the fact that transition surgeries are rarely offered to patients under the age of 18 and only in cases of extreme medical need.)
Additionally, Vance is a supporter of the so-called “parent’s rights” movement, which advocates that LGBTQ+ students be outed to their parents and seeks to remove queer-affirming resources from classrooms. He has repeatedly referred to opponents of those actions as “groomers,” such as in an April 2022 post on X. “I’ll stop calling people ‘groomers’ when they stop freaking out about bills that prevent the sexualization of my children,” he wrote at the time.
The 39-year-old politician has also opposed diversity and inclusion in the U.S. armed forces, suggesting that he is likely to support re-banning trans servicemembers from the military should Trump be elected. “American political leaders should stop using America’s military as a social justice side project,” his 2022 campaign site reads. “Troops don’t need to focus on diversity or equity or any other progressive buzzword; they need to focus on fighting and winning America’s wars.” The removal of trans troops from the military is a major component of Project 2025, a set of far-right policy proposals shaped and promoted by the anti-LGBTQ+ Heritage Foundation, which Trump has sought to distance himself from in recent days.
Vance’s anti-LGBTQ+ background also includes claiming that Biden supports Ukraine because Russian President Vladimir Putin is anti-trans and blaming the “childless left” for America’s decline, specifically citing U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. Furthermore, he once accused U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) of making up the term “Two-Spirit,” which is broadly embraced by LGBTQ+ Native Americans to describe their identities. “Would love if progressives just stopped inventing words,” Vance posted on X in February 2021.
In repeatedly opposing LGBTQ+ equality, Vance has found a perfect match in Trump, whose administration was responsible for more than 200 attacks on queer rights in four years, according to GLAAD. These assaults included repealing protections for trans students, removing resources for LGBTQ+ Americans from federal websites, decimating funding for global HIV/AIDS prevention, and appointing a record-number of judges opposed to LGBTQ+ equality. His administration also made it harder for marginally housed people to find safe shelter and opposed workplace protections for LGBTQ+ employees.
Trump, whose own supporters threatened to kill his last vice president for refusing to support Trump’s 2020 bid to remain in office, is likely to resume many of those policies if reelected in November.
I am posting this video for those that think sex and gender is assigned at birth. That the birthing person simply has to look between the legs to see it a new baby is a boy or a girl. As I repeatedly say that has been replaced by more advanced medical understanding. If a baby has a dangle or an innie don’t mean it is one sex or the other, one gender or the others. Also for those who will shout those people are anomalies and rare. Not many of them. There are more of those people, intersex people than there are red heads in the world. And even though she is genetically a male she still feels, acts, and goes by female pronouns. Where are all those saying pronouns are offensive. Going to call this girl him / his and send her to the boy’s bathroom. Hugs. Scottie
Wanted to share something very important and personal to raise awareness and hopefully help someone who’s struggling with similar feelings I felt back when I was diagnosed as intersex.
The Rev. points out how bad an idea this is, and that is people want religious instruction they should trust their church, their trained religious leaders, not the government. Again this man makes a lot of sense to me compared to US hate preachers. Hugs. Scottie
The MeidasTouch released a video of a HOT MIC moment with The Mango Moose Knuckle! Then, RON DeSantan releases 160 pages of Grand Jury transcripts from Jeffery Epstein’s 2006 Grand Jury Trial!!
Thanks to Ali for the link. But seriously why is no paper or his moral police followers who call gay people, trans people, and teachers groomers and pedophiles have not called for pedophile tRump to drop out. By the way, with WordPress new format this was a huge pain to post and took over an hour to do. Hugs. Scottie
Last batch of unsealed Jeffrey Epstein documents released
In total, 4,553 pages of documents were made public, and they included the names of more than 150 people connected to or mentioned in legal proceedings related to Epstein and his network, which allegedly centered on paying teenage girls and young women to engage in sexual acts with the wealthy financier and other powerful menunder the guise of massage therapy.
‘Outrageous to decent people’: Disgusted judge finally releases Jeffrey Epstein rape testimony that preceded sweetheart plea deal
Among the revelations contained in the transcripts are the statements from victims who were minors at the time they were paid to provide “massages” to Epstein — an exchange that quickly escalated into sexual abuse, trafficking, and rape, according to victims’ testimony.
Prior to marrying Melania in January 2005, Trump was calling Jeffrey Epstein in 2004 on the regular.
We see Donalds phone messages in the West Palm Beach indictment of Epstein, released today. His messages are in between girls calling to confirm “massage appointments” and… pic.twitter.com/eUeTWLq0lZ
‘Before marrying Melania in 2005’: What new documents claim about Trump-Epstein
New documents which were unreleased so far claim that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were closer than it was believed. Transcripts show Trump called Epstein many times between 2004 and 2006. The screenshots were sealed in 2008 as part of Alexander Acosta’s deal for Jeffrey Epstein and were released on July 1.
“Trump’s name appears over and over again on Jeffrey Epstein’s message logs in the grand jury docs released this week. It is also undisputed: Trump’s name appears 7 times on Epstein’s private jet flight logs, that Epstein flew on Trump’s jet with a young girl of indeterminate age, girls who Epstein trafficked worked at Mar-A-Lago, a girl Epstein trafficked mentioned visiting Trump’s casino in a recently released deposition transcript.
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Russia launched a barrage of missiles on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in a rare daytime attack, killing at least 20 people across the country and hitting a key children’s hospital
There have been several recent incidents where far-right, white supremacist groups have targeted LGBTQ people, including last weekend at a pride event in Idaho and a during a drag story hour at a library in California. J.M. Berger, a writer and researcher who focuses on extremist ideologies and has written four books on the topic, joins William Brangham to discuss.
Some Pride month events across the country, like Drag Queen Story Hours, have been targeted by far-right protestors.
Check out our Pride Store: https://professorpride.com/ 55 Years ago today was the Stonewall Riots, leading to LGBTQ freedom and Pride Month so we wanted to check in to see how this Pride month went
Students and teachers in Florida can now discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms, as long as it’s not part of formal instruction. It’s an important change after a new settlement between state education officials and civil rights attorneys who challenged the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. WMFE education reporter Danielle Prieur joins Stephanie Sy to discuss.
A lawsuit settlement in Florida over the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law will allow students and teachers to openly discuss gender identity and sexual orientation as long as it’s not part of classroom instruction. Jim DeFede from CBS News Miami has more.
Scottie's Playtime 