Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty
The political profession of J.D. Vance has undergone fairly the transformation. In 2016 he was fretting to his school roommate that Donald Trump may be “America’s Hitler.” Immediately the U.S. senator from Ohio is aggressively pro-Trump, and he’s rumored to be one of many prime finalists on the VP shortlist (together with Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio, and possibly Tim Scott). However those that imagine Vance has glorious odds of turning into Trump’s 2024 operating mate are forgetting one essential factor: Vance has a beard, and Trump has a bizarre aversion to facial hair.
The previous U.S. president/beauty-pageant proprietor places a whole lot of inventory in who has “the look”; when filling his Cupboard he praised a number of candidates for being “out of central casting.” And because the Bulwark reported on July 9, it’s doubtless that in Trump’s thoughts, a vice-president shouldn’t have facial hair.
“J.D. has a beard. However Trump is a clean-shaven man. He simply doesn’t like facial hair,” a Trump confidant instructed the outlet. “You simply by no means know.”
Trump’s points with whiskers are well-known. In 2020 he publicly instructed his son Don Jr. to eliminate his quarantine beard, and John Bolton’s bushy mustache reportedly took him out of the operating for secretary of State (in 2018 he grew to become nationwide safety adviser, however by then Trump was determined). Trump is mainly a real-life model of Monty Burns shouting at Don Mattingly to “shave these sideburns.” However that answer isn’t going to work for Vance, in line with the Bulwark:
So why not shave his face? It’s most likely out of the query for Vance due to how younger he’s and appears. The Ohio senator turns 40 on August 2 and can be the third-youngest vp to serve. However Trump needs somebody who’s skilled—or at the least seems skilled. And “with out the beard, Vance seems like he’s 12,” stated one other Trump adviser.
So Vance — who admitted it’ll be a “disappointment” if Trump does’t decide him for VP — should have been relieved when Trump denied that his beard is a matter throughout a July 10 interview with Brian Kilmeade on Fox Information Radio.
“It seems good,” Trump stated. “He seems like a younger Abraham Lincoln.”
This was typically taken as a “glowing endorsement” of Vance’s look. And positive, to any sane person who’s what it appears like. Nevertheless it’s an enormous purple flag to anybody well-versed in Trump’s weird grudges and insecurities .
Trump has a long-running rivalry with Abraham Lincoln. It’s a one-sided beef, because the sixteenth president is lifeless, and he clearly wouldn’t be threatened by Trump even when he weren’t. However on quite a few events, Trump has pointed to Lincoln because the one attainable exception to his claims of being the best president of all time.
“I’ve at all times stated I will be extra presidential than any president in historical past apart from Sincere Abe Lincoln, when he’s carrying the hat,” Trump stated at a rally in 2019. “That’s powerful, that’s powerful. That’s a tricky one to beat.”
Trump continued claiming that he’s “at all times competed” towards Lincoln all through his presidency, and earlier this yr he blasted his Nineteenth-century predecessor for failing to make use of negotiation techniques to stop the Civil Struggle.
So is it actually a great signal for Vance that he reminds Trump of the person he thinks of as his largest rival? Notably when Trump has already been publicly warned that Vance might doubtlessly “outshine” him, and even change him as chief of the MAGA motion?
I’d argue that it’s really a great indicator that Vance ought to brace himself for disappointment. Why would Trump decide a operating mate who stirs up his deep-seated Lincoln-related insecurities when he might go together with Burgum, a man who most resembles an inoffensive, lesser-known Muppet?
