Donald Trump has reportedly compared himself to legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi with his tapping of JD Vance as his running mate, despite ongoing and frequent criticism of the Ohio Senator.
The former president has bragged to those close to him that his eye for talent is equal to that of the Hall of Fame coach, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest of all time, sources told The New York Times.
It comes as Vance’s popularity, or apparent lack of it, continues to be a point of focus both online and in the media, with new clips of controversial prior interviews resurfacing almost daily.
The Democrats have taken delight in highlighting such content to attack Vance further on his attitude towards women and their rights.
Bungled doughnut shop orders and awkward fist-bump interactions with voters out on the campaign trail have led to both he and Trump being branded “weird” – something that both GOP candidates continue to deny.
But it’s not just the Democrats who have picked up on the blunders. Recent polling from FiveThirty Eight shows that national opinion of Vance is largely negative.
Some 44.5 percent of people surveyed said they had an “unfavorable” opinion of Vance, compared with 34 percent that had a “favorable” opinion of him.
“JD never had a honeymoon — he had a hurricane, but I think a lot of that is in the rearview mirror now,” Charlie Kirk, a Republican activist close to the Trump campaign, told The Times.
“He’s further animated the conservative base and also voters we are looking to run up the score with, which are white working-class voters and young male voters.”
Despite this, The Times reports – via sources – that Trump has been so far pleased with Vance’s ability to press on with pace in the face of relentless critique and hit back with targeted attacks of his own on both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Trump instructed his vice presidential pick to fight through initial broadsides and later said Vance’s execution exceeded his expectations, according to three campaign allies who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity.
Vance has indeed been good at keeping in step with Trump’s various attack lines on their political rivals.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Wednesday he blamed Harris for the deaths of 13 service members in Afghanistan in 2021, opening the southern border to cartels, and being a communist, all within 30 minutes.
