Vance’s midterm pitch is strikingly different from Trump’s

In his keynote speech Thursday night at the Republican midterm convention, Vice President JD Vance offered a very different midterm pitch than his boss.

He acknowledged many voters dislike certain things about the Trump administration, but he urged them to nonetheless vote against the Democratic “crazies.”

It was a more realistic and nuanced pitch, and it’s a striking contrast to President Donald Trump’s all-is-great, we’re-in-the-Golden-Age approach.

But it’s a difficult sell — in large part because Trump has given voters so much to dislike.

Vance devoted a significant chunk of his speech to this argument. He even invoked the late Charlie Kirk , whom he strongly suggested would have opposed Trump’s war with Iran.

Vance cited “some people who love some of our policies but maybe don’t agree with others.”

He called out “young men, many of whom felt inspired by Charlie Kirk but are unhappy with some of what has happened in the wake of his death.”

“Do not throw the baby out with the bath water,” Vance added. “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.”

And finally, he said: “I’m not asking anybody to agree on every single policy of the administration. What I am asking you to do is to recognize the contrast with the radicals and recognize the achievements of the last 18 months.”

This is vastly different from Trump’s pitch.

The president followed up Vance’s speech by riffing on how great everything is, arguing the United States is in a new golden age.

And just hours before Vance’s speech, Fox News released an interview with Trump in which host Laura Ingraham posited that the same “young men” Vance later cited were “demoralized.” Trump quickly reject the premise out of hand. He insisted they still supported him, weren’t demoralized and understood the value of the Iran war.

That is, of course, not true — not in the broad strokes. A Pew Research Center poll in March showed just 49% of Republicans under 30 approved of Trump’s handling of the war, compared to 84% of GOP senior citizens.

But that hints at the limits of Vance’s pitch.

The problem is that for many would-be Republican voters — including young men — it’s not just an issue or two that has alienated them. Trump has saddled his party with a large swath of things that polls show Americans decidedly don’t like.

The president even cited many of them in his keynote address on Wednesday. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed independents overwhelmingly opposed Trump on a number of things:

74% disapproved of his handling of the Iran war

75% disapproved of his handling of the economy

71% disapproved of his handling of the Russia-Ukraine war

70% disapproved of his handling of trade with Canada (Trump recently launched a trade war)

76% opposed his recent renaming of Lake Ontario as “Lake America”

69% opposed his White House ballroom project

And on each of these, between 17% and 38% of Republicans also disapproved.

Similarly, CNN polling in July showed that Republicans and GOP-leaning independents — the kinds of voters the GOP needs to convince — often oppose what Trump does by 30%, 40% and even 50% or more .

There is also one issue that is far and away No. 1 for the vast majority of Americans: affordability. And Trump has lost the plot on it.

He’s spent months falsely claiming that prices are down and the economy is booming. But he hasn’t seemed to convince virtually anyone of this alternate reality.

That’s led people to believe Trump is asleep at the wheel. Around three-quarters of people think he’s neglected the issue . The July CNN poll showed 81% of independents and 43% of Republicans disapproved of him on inflation.

It would be one thing if inflation were bad, Trump was out there trying to fix it, and it was just a tough slog. But he’s piled on things that Americans aren’t asking for, that make clear his priorities are elsewhere, and that in some cases could even exacerbate inflation: the tariffs, the Iran war, the ballroom and his many legacy projects.

Trump is acting like he simply doesn’t care about public opinion; he just wants to do what he wants to do, for his legacy.

Vance’s presentation Thursday was at least an attempt to level with people. But it was a discordant one next to a president who insists on a different reality — and has governed as if he has the political capital that that alternate reality would afford him.

And that showcases the weakness of Vance’s argument — at least to the extent it was intended for the 2026 election, rather than a future race in which he might need some distance from Trump.

在周四晚共和党中期选举大会的主题演讲中，副总统 JD Vance 提出了与他的上司截然不同的中期选举方案。

他承认许多选民不喜欢特朗普政府的某些方面，但他仍然敦促他们投票反对民主党的“疯子”。

这是一个更加现实、更加细致的论调，与唐纳德·特朗普总统“一切都很好，我们正处于黄金时代”的说法形成了鲜明的对比。

但这很难让人接受——很大程度上是因为特朗普给选民留下了太多反感的地方。

万斯在演讲中用了相当多的篇幅来阐述这个论点。他甚至提到了已故的查理·柯克，并强烈暗示柯克会反对特朗普对伊朗发动战争。

万斯指出，“有些人喜欢我们的一些政策，但可能不同意其他一些政策。”

他指出，“许多年轻人深受查理·柯克的鼓舞，但对他去世后发生的一些事情感到不满。”

“不要因噎废食，”万斯补充道。“不要因为在某些政策问题上与我们意见相左，就把国家拱手让给一群疯子。”

最后，他说：“我并不是要求大家对政府的每一项政策都表示赞同。我只是要求大家认识到政府与激进派之间的区别，并认可过去18个月取得的成就。”

这与特朗普的说辞截然不同。

总统在范斯演讲后，即兴发挥，大谈一切有多么美好，并声称美国正处于一个新的黄金时代。

就在万斯发表讲话前几个小时，福克斯新闻发布了一段对特朗普的采访，主持人劳拉·英格拉姆在采访中提出，万斯后来提到的那些“年轻人”已经“士气低落”。特朗普立即断然否认了这一前提。他坚称，这些人仍然支持他，并没有士气低落，并且理解伊朗战争的价值。

当然，这并非事实——至少从总体上看并非如此。皮尤研究中心3月份的一项民调显示，只有49%的30岁以下共和党人认可特朗普对战争的处理方式，相比之下，84%的共和党老年选民对此表示认可。

但这表明范斯的推销策略存在局限性。

问题在于，对于许多潜在的共和党选民——包括年轻男性——来说，疏远他们的并非仅仅是一两个问题。特朗普给他的政党带来了一大堆民调显示美国民众明显不喜欢的政策。

总统甚至在周三的主题演讲中引用了其中许多观点。昆尼皮亚克大学周四公布的一项民调显示，独立选民在许多方面都强烈反对特朗普：

74%的人不赞成他对伊朗战争的处理方式

75%的人不赞成他对经济的处理方式。

71%的人不赞成他处理俄乌战争的方式。

70%的人不赞成他处理对加贸易的方式（特朗普最近发动了贸易战）。

76%的人反对他将安大略湖更名为“美洲湖”。

69%的人反对他的白宫宴会厅项目。

在这些问题上，也有 17% 到 38% 的共和党人表示不赞成。

同样，CNN 7 月份的民调显示，共和党人和倾向于共和党的独立人士（共和党需要说服的那类选民）通常反对特朗普的做法，反对率高达 30%、40% 甚至 50% 或更多。

还有一个问题对绝大多数美国人来说才是头等大事：那就是生活成本。而特朗普在这个问题上完全失策了。

他几个月来一直谎称物价下跌、经济繁荣，但似乎几乎没有人相信这种说法。

这导致人们认为特朗普对通胀问题漠不关心。大约四分之三的人认为他忽视了这个问题。CNN七月份的民调显示，81%的独立选民和43%的共和党人对他的通胀政策表示不满。

如果通货膨胀严重，特朗普努力解决，而过程又十分艰难，那倒也罢了。但他却推行了一系列美国民众并不需要的政策，这清楚地表明他的优先事项另有他意，而且在某些情况下，这些政策甚至可能加剧通货膨胀：例如关税、伊朗战争、舞厅计划以及他众多的“遗产项目”。

特朗普的表现好像他根本不在乎公众舆论；他只想为了自己的政治遗产而做他想做的事。

万斯周四的发言至少表明他试图向民众坦诚相待。但与一位坚持另一种现实的总统相比，这种坦诚显得格格不入——这位总统的执政方式也仿佛表明他拥有那种另类现实所能带来的政治资本。

这也暴露了万斯论点的弱点——至少就其针对 2026 年大选而非未来他可能需要与特朗普保持一定距离的竞选而言是如此。