Vance’s selection solidifies Trump’s hold over the GOP

CNN —

Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s selection as Donald Trump’s running mate has cemented the Republican Party’s reorientation away from the internationalist approach to the world that characterized it for the six decades before his rise.

In his brief political career, Vance has embraced militantly isolationist, protectionist, and anti-immigration positions — the three critical elements of the defensive nationalism that Trump has stamped on the GOP. Trump’s pick reflects his confidence that he has subdued resistance in his party to his agenda for global affairs, which includes retreat from traditional alliances, soaring tariffs and severe measures against undocumented immigration, including mass deportations.

“We don’t have any more mixed signals,” said Bill Kristol, a long-time conservative strategist turned Trump critic. “We now have Trump and a younger and more committed version of Trump. It’s just a decisive move toward America First on foreign policy.”

Trump’s selection of Vance is one of the clearest barometers of the former president’s tightening hold over the GOP. In 2016, Trump felt compelled to choose as his vice president Mike Pence, who provided a bridge to an array of constituencies suspicious of the New York business executive at that point. Those included Christian conservatives, the business community, congressional insiders and traditional Republican foreign policy hawks shaped by Ronald Reagan’s vision of the US as the muscular leader of the free world.

This time Trump felt impregnable enough inside the GOP to choose a running mate who doesn’t offer outreach to any of those groups (except, to some extent, social conservatives). Instead, with Vance, Trump chose an acolyte and potential successor who could