Donald Trump announces his pick for VP - as he is confirmed as Republican presidential nominee (2024)

James David Vance was a bitter critic of Donald Trump in 2016 - now he is running on the same ticket.

Publicly, he called Trump an "idiot" and "reprehensible," while privately comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

"I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful), or that he's America's Hitler," he wrote privately to an associate on Facebook in 2016.

But he has become one of Trump's most ardent defenders, and while some Democrats say it is opportunism, many of his advisers see his transformation as genuine.

Mr Vance's political beliefs are a mix of isolationism and economic populism, at odds with the old guard of the Republican Party, where foreign policy hawks and free market evangelists hold sway.

The 39-year-old Ohio senator vocally opposes US aid for Ukraine in its war with Russia - to the delighted of Trump's allies.

He agrees with Trump's contentions that freetrade hollowed out middle America by crushing domestic manufacturing and that the nation's leaders were too quick to get involved in foreign wars.

Mr Vance also downplayed the 6 January attack on the US Capitol by Trump's supporters.

As an Ohio senator from modest origins, his pick may help boost the Trump campaign's race in battleground states like nearby Pennsylvania and Michigan.

After serving in the Marine Corps, attending Yale Law School and working as a venture capitalist in San Francisco, Mr Vance rose to national prominence thanks to his 2016 book "Hillbilly
Elegy."

In that memoir, he explored the socioeconomic problems confronting his hometown and attempted to explain Mr Trump's popularity among impoverished white Americans.

Donald Trump has become the de facto Republican nominee for president, after enough votes were cast at the National Convention to secure his bid.

Delegates from 29 more states are still casting their votes, but the former president has passed the threshold to win.

His son, Eric Trump, announced the delegates from Florida which put the former president over the line.

Approximately 2,400 delegates from around the country will vote in total, sent there by voters in Republican primaries and caucuses held in each of the 50 states.

The vast majority are bound to vote the way their constituents decided - they are not free to make up their own minds, per se.

To win, a candidate needs 1,125 of the 2,400 delegate votes. During the primaries, 2,243 were allocated to Trump, making this process a formality.

More now on the investigation into the shooting of Donald Trump, our US partner network NBC News reports more than a dozen guns have been found in a search of the suspected gunman's home.

NBC News' chief justice contributor Jonathan Dienst reports one senior official has said they are looking into whether some of the ammo was bought in the days before the shooting.

They're also said to be looking into whether that ammo was collected and taken home or delivered.

The FBI has also just said its specialists gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks' phone and continue to analyse electronic devices.

A search of his residence and vehicle are complete, the FBI added.

Donald Trump has named Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate for the presidential election.

This means that if Trump is elected this November, Mr Vance will become vice president.

Trump said he made the decision "after lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others".

Posting on Truth Social, he wrote: "JD honourably served our country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years summa cum laude, and is a Yale law school graduate, where he was editor of the Yale Law Journal, and president of the Yale Law Veterans Association."

He continued: "JD has had a very successful business career in technology and finance, and now, during the campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for."

Trump added: "As vice president, JD will continue to fight for our constitution, stand with our troops, and will do everything he can to help me MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."

The US Marines veteran once described himself as a "never Trumper" but has since become a reliable supporter, even attending court in New York to support Trump at his hush money trial.

Mr Vance is aligned with Trump's populist mindset and will likely be palatable to the MAGA base - perhaps even as a potential successor one day.

The roll call has just begun, with delegates from each state pledging their support for a Republican candidate.

Almost all of the 2,400 delegates are set to select Trump.

Until now, we've been hearing speakers and music rousing the party faithful at the convention. Now is the run-up to the official selection of the Republican presidential nominee.

Republicans are starting to fill out the venue for the national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The scene inside shows the kind of pomp and grandeur that's come to be expected from events like this in the lead-up to the presidential election.

Donald Trump will pick his running mate tonight and his own position as the Republican nominee will be made official.

The Republican National Convention (RNC) is set to begin within minutes, in the wake of a failed assassination attempt on the former president.

All eyes are on the convention to see whether Trump will use the opportunity to address the attack.

Protesters have gathered outside the convention in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Inside, delegates from each state gather to formally vote to nominate Trump and his potential vice president.

The director of the Secret Service has said she's confident in the plan to secure the building, after a man shot at Trump from a rooftop near a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.

Kim Cheatle said the security plans for the event are "designed to be flexible".

We are expecting to see familiar Republican faces speak, like House speaker Mike Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy - who ran a failed bid to become the Republican nominee - and Trump's eldest sons, Donald Jr and Eric.

Hundreds of protesters have gathered outside the Republican National Convention.

The Coalition to March on the RNC, comprised largely of local groups, was protesting for access to abortion rights, for immigrant rights, and against the war in Gaza, among other issues.

Organisers said the rally was going ahead despite the attempt on Trump's life on Saturday.

"We're going to continue with the march as we planned," said Omar Flores, a coalition spokesman.

"The shooting has nothing to do with us."

Doug Burgum has been told he will not be Trump's running mate, sources have told Reuters.

A North Dakota governor, Mr Burgum hoped his small-town values would appeal to Republican voters enough to choose him as the presidential nominee. That didn't work - but it could have made him an appealing pick to join Trump on the ticket.

The 67-year-old former software company executive has stressed his humble origins and previously said the next US president should be "someone who's held jobs where you shower at the end of the day, not at the beginning".

North Dakota is as red as they come, so picking Mr Burgum wouldn't come with the advantage of moving the dial in a swing state.

Within the last hour, Reuters reported Marco Rubio has also been ruled out - but nothing has bee made official yet.

With all eyes on the Republicans, a reminder of the state of play for the Democrats.

Despite calls for him to step aside, Joe Biden is expected to receive the official presidential nomination from fellow Democrats - according to four sources cited by Reuters.

Democrats and Republicans typically use their national conventions to officially nominate their candidates, but Mr Biden will be nominated weeks before his party gathers in Chicago on 19 August.

This was a plan announced long before the president's shaky 27 June debate, with a virtual vote planned for late July.

Biden campaign officials said they expect Saturday's assassination attempt on Trump will reduce the pressure on him to step aside.

Mr Biden, 81, has repeatedly insisted he is not going anywhere and says he is best equipped to beat Trump.

Why is there an early vote?

The early nomination was scheduled to deal with an Ohio law that could have kept Mr Biden off ballots in the state if he weren't nominated by 7 August, before the convention.

Democrats are still moving forward with the plan even though Ohio's governor signed a bill in May to secure Mr Biden's spot on the state's ballot.

An online or virtual vote means no chance of a live convention floor battle in Chicago that could embarrass Mr Biden and throw the campaign into chaos.

In any case, there does not appear to be any well-defined push to rally delegates around any other candidate ahead of the virtual vote, Reuters reports.

How will the vote work?

Many of the details will be decided on 19 and 21 July, when the party's convention rules and credentials committee meet.

Any virtual process is likely to happen within days of those meetings, according to officials.

What if Joe Biden steps down after he is nominated?

If Mr Biden steps down after the official nomination, then the 435 members of theDemocratic National Committee would hold a special session to choose a new candidate.

The members are divided roughly equally between men and women as well as various constituency groups including LGBT+ representatives and racial minorities.