JD Vance strode onstage at the Republican convention in Dallas like a man who believed he was the next president.
By the time he walked off, his audience thought the same.
Donald Trump has been toying with his vice-president for more than a year, informally polling advisers, confidants and supporters over whether Mr Vance or Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, should succeed him.
Most of that was likely for show by the former host of The Apprentice – a president who calculated he could keep the spotlight by throwing his successor’s coronation into doubt.
That came to an end at the midterms convention in Dallas on Thursday, where Mr Vance drew a rapturous reception from the crowd, while Mr Rubio, on a diplomatic tour that neatly coincided with the event, stayed away entirely.
Mr Vance knew how to work the crowd at the Republican convention in Dallas – AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Mr Vance knew how to work the crowd, and was fast on his feet with quips and jabs. To chants of “JD 48” – he would be the 48th president should he win the 2028 election – he answered: “We’ve got to take care of business this November. Then we’ll worry about what comes next.”
And when a protester unfurled a Mexican flag on the floor of the convention, he brought the crowd to its feet with his response.
“My friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there,” he drawled. “I’ll buy you the plane ticket.”
Mr Vance’s speech was best seen as a sequel to the one he delivered at the Republican National Convention in 2024, when he was selected as Mr Trump’s running mate.
That address was about introducing Mr Vance, then an Ohio senator. He framed himself as a product of the US communities shattered by a warped political consensus that sent jobs and troops overseas while letting drugs flood in. The self-declared “hillbilly” was Maga embodied.
In the Dallas speech, Mr Vance, now established on the national stage, looked forward. A father of four, the youngest of whom was born in July, he used his children to reflect on the “birthright” that Democratic socialists wanted to tear away.
‘We’ve got to take care of business this November. Then we’ll worry about what comes next’: JD Vance drew a rapturous reception – AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
“I can’t help but look at the future of this country through the eyes of the future of my son,” he claimed. “I can’t help but think about what it is that we’re fighting for.”
There was one vital role he fulfilled which Republican strategists had been begging the president to: to show he understood voters’ frustrations, rather than simply declaring victory and moving on.
Mr Trump couldn’t, or wouldn’t. Mr Vance did – but carefully, to avoid isolating the president on whom, even now, his political future depends.
Mr Vance did not mention the word “Iran” once in his speech. But his message was clear: don’t abandon Republicans because of the war in the Middle East.
“Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he implored. “Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.”
Shortly before his speech, The New York Times reported that Mr Vance was calling US military commanders for unvarnished assessments about the war.
Mr Rubio, for his part, looks too savvy to wage a long-shot fight for the Republican nomination against Mr Trump’s political heir. It should be no surprise that the nation’s chief diplomat has opted for the diplomatic route.
Showered in jobs and titles by Mr Trump, he is the first joint secretary of state and national security adviser since Henry Kissinger. Like Kissinger, he may seek to retain his influence among successive Republican presidents.
President Trump gives JD Vance a thumbs-up as he arrives at the Republican Convention – AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
And should Mr Vance stumble, Mr Rubio – a former Tea Party Republican turned neo-Reaganite turned “America First” politician – has never had a problem reinventing himself.
As recently as June, Mr Rubio and Mr Vance were neck-and-neck in the prediction markets to succeed Mr Trump. Now Mr Vance is judged more than twice as likely to reach the top of the ticket.
It fell to Mr Trump to deliver the closing remarks at the convention, enjoying the spotlight one final time. After November, as Mr Vance tacitly acknowledged, interest will start to leech away from the likely “lame duck”.
Mr Trump, serenaded by an opera singer, had been left to face the music alone.
Mr Vance exited stage right after his speech. When he is next on that convention stage, it will almost certainly be as the presidential nominee-in-waiting.