Vice President Vance Inaugurated... Spotlight on Role as 'Maga Successor'
by Lee Seunghyeong
Published 21 Jan.2025 10:25(KST)
Updated 21 Jan.2025 14:30(KST)
Sworn in Before Trump... Debuts as the 'Young Second-in-Command'
Attention on His Path Toward Becoming the Next Republican Presidential Candidate
With the launch of the 'Trump 2.0' administration, Vice President J.D. Vance, who officially debuted, is drawing attention as to whether he will play the role of the 'MAGA (Make America Great Again) successor.'
On the 20th (local time), Vice President Vance took the oath of office ahead of President Donald Trump in accordance with tradition at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., while his wife Usha, the 'Second Lady,' held their daughter and watched.
Vice President Vance is regarded as the right person to carry on President Trump's 'MAGA' ideology within the core Trump-supporting faction of the Republican Party. He has already begun 'second-in-command diplomacy' by meeting with Han Zheng, Vice Premier of China, who visited the U.S. to congratulate President Trump's inauguration the day before.
Having built a 'hard-right' image through blocking illegal immigration, restraining foreign military interventions, and emphasizing meritocracy, Vice President Vance faced criticism from Democratic supporters at one point after being selected as the vice-presidential candidate in July last year, due to disparaging remarks about childless women, which were negatively highlighted and seen as a 'burden' on President Trump's political moves.
However, after a logical and composed victory in a TV debate against Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Governor of Minnesota, Vice President Vance began to be called a 'successful gambit' rather than a 'burden' for President Trump.
In terms of policy, Vice President Vance is seen as a successor to Trumpism (Trump ideology) while possessing youth and restraint that President Trump lacks. Additionally, his background of growing up in a poor family in the Rust Belt (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan) is considered a political asset for Vice President Vance.
Whether Vice President Vance will become the next Republican presidential candidate as President Trump's successor, as Republican supporters expect, will likely depend on the success of the Trump 2.0 administration. Furthermore, attention will be focused on whether Vice President Vance will demonstrate the capability and charisma to lead the United States, which maintains its status as a global superpower, not merely as 'Trump's shadow.'
He is expected to faithfully carry on the 'America First' policy advocated by President Trump, but there are also hopes that he will sometimes voice independent opinions or fill the weaknesses of the Trump administration. In this regard, in a Fox News interview on the 12th, Vice President Vance took a stance different from President Trump by arguing that those who committed violence during the 'January 6 incident,' when Trump’s ardent supporters stormed the federal Capitol in January 2021 in protest of the election results, should not be pardoned.
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