US vice-president candidate and techie JD Vance (centre, in yellow tie) is seen at the Republican National Convention on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. — Reuters pic
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Wednesday, 17 Jul 2024 4:13 PM MYT
MILWAUKEE, July 17 — Donald Trump's choice of J.D. Vance for a running mate raised the hopes of Silicon Valley conservatives on Tuesday that they stand to gain having a fellow “tech bro” within reach of the White House for the first time.
“WE HAVE A FORMER TECH VC IN THE WHITE HOUSE. GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH BABY,” Delian Asparouhov, a partner at billionaire investor Peter Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund, wrote on social media site X.
Author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a graduate of Yale Law School and later a venture capitalist in San Francisco, Vance has had a rapid ascent for American politics.
At 39, he has served but two years in the US Senate representing the state of Ohio.
The Republican National Convention on Monday formally nominated Trump and Vance as their ticket in the Nov. 5 election to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Some right-leaning investors began re-circulating old tweets of Vance's and set their sights on friendlier regulations ranging from artificial intelligence to cryptocurrency.
“He has a direct line to some important influencers as he's evaluating or thinking through some of the policy around tech,” said Matt Murphy, a partner at venture capital firm Menlo Ventures, noting the traditional gap between Washington and Silicon Valley.
On the campaign trail, Vance has used his background to serve as a bridge between Trump associates and wealthy Silicon Valley donors, many of whom have opened their wallets to Trump this election.
Republicans comprise a minority in the overwhelmingly left-leaning San Francisco Bay Area, although conservatives in the tech industry, including Thiel, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and entrepreneur Elon Musk, have begun to raise their voices more.
Buoyed by the promise of technology, they complain about what they view as unnecessary constraints placed on their businesses by progressive politicians and employees.
Vance has ridden that wave, aided by Thiel, who poured some US$15 million into Vance's successful US Senate campaign in 2022 and invested in the VC firm Narya that he founded in 2019.
Silicon Valley conservatives say they see Vance as one of their own even when they differ on some policies.
Despite his background, Vance has said that large tech companies have too much influence and called for Google to be broken up, positions at odds with conservatives who chafe at government regulation.
Venture capitalist and crypto investor Tim Draper, who backed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, said he was hopeful Vance “is more VC than lawyer”.
“A good understanding of the way freedom and startups drive growth in our economy is critical for the continued success of the Silicon Valley, our nation's 'golden goose,'” Draper said.
Draper saw Vance's crypto investments as a sign that he “probably groks (intuitively understands) the economy of the future to some degree,” he said, using a term popular in tech circles. Grok is also the name of the ChatGPT challenger from Musk's startup xAI.
Vance held more than US$100,000 in Bitcoin as of 2022, according to his federal disclosure from October 2023.
The Trump-Vance campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Vance's ties to Silicon Valley, his proposed tech policies and whether he still holds cryptocurrency.
When asked whether the Trump-Vance ticket would seek to break up Google, Trump's son and adviser Donald Jr., who favoured Vance for the No. 2 job, told Reuters at the convention in Milwaukee: “I'll let them discuss some of the intricacies of the platform ... but I like his (Vance's) understanding of tech”.
Vance introduced Donald Trump Jr. to entrepreneur and investor David Sacks and helped to organise a June fundraiser at Sacks' San Francisco mansion that raised US$12 million for the former president.
Sacks thanked Vance in his speech at the event, according to a source familiar with it, saying “this all started with J.D. Vance calling and asking if we could host an event for President Trump”.
The former president used the June event to pitch himself as a champion for cryptocurrency and slammed Democrats' attempts to regulate the sector, Reuters reported at the time.
— Reuters
Noah Sheidlower and Catherine Boudreau Jul 17, 2024
Elon Musk endorsed Trump's vice presidential pick JD Vance, who has been outspoken against electric vehicles. Marc Piasecki/Getty Images, Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
JD Vance, a critic of electric vehicles, received Elon Musk's endorsement.
Vance has expressed support for the oil industry and has proposed cutting EV subsidies.
Musk also opposes EV subsidies, although Tesla has benefited from past subsidies.
For years, JD Vance has criticized the switch to electric vehicles and said Teslas aren't his thing. Elon Musk endorsed him anyway.
The Ohio senator, and now the Republican vice presidential candidate, has the backing of Musk and other Silicon Valley tech billionaires like Peter Thiel and AOL founder Steve Case, even as Vance became a vocal critic of EVs and the tech industry during his first two years in office.
"If you have a Tesla — and I think they're kind of cool. I don't own one, they're pretty fast. But not my thing," Vance told The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show in 2022.
Vance said his anti-EV stance stems from what he sees as hypocrisy in the charging and manufacturing of the vehicles. While the US doesn't import many EVs directly from China, the country does dominate the supply chain for batteries and the critical minerals inside them. Back in the US, cars are also charged up on a mostly dirty power grid, Vance added, saying, "The whole EV thing is a scam."
"If you plug it into your wall, people think there's Keebler elves back there making energy in the walls," he said. "It comes, of course, from fossil fuels. So you're manufacturing cars in the dirtiest economy in the world. You're still relying on fossil fuels to produce energy."
Vance has also criticized President Joe Biden's tax incentives to encourage more Americans to buy EVs and introduced his own tax credit for gas- and diesel-powered vehicles manufactured in the US.
Related stories
Some of Silicon Valley is pumped about JD Vance. Other CEOs, not so much.
Trump goes all in by selecting JD Vance as his MAGA heir apparent
But none of this seems to be a problem for Musk. On Tuesday, he also voiced opposition to subsidies for EVs, noting that taking them away "will only help Tesla." Musk in past interviews has said Tesla's advantage over its competitors would widen if federal subsidies ended. Yet Tesla has received subsidies amounting to nearly $3 billion, such as in 2010 when the company got a $465 million federal loan.
On Monday, Musk committed to donating $45 million per month to a pro-Trump super PAC, even though Trump has similarly disproved of EVs, calling the Biden administration's support for EVs "ridiculous."
Here's what to do, eat, and see in Hong Kong during the day
Why Vance doesn't like EVs
Vance's opposition to EVs aligns with his recent pivot to being a climate denier.
As recently as a 2020 speech at Ohio State University, Vance said, "a climate problem exists in our society," noting the benefits of solar energy.
However, by 2022, he had changed his mind following his campaign for the Senate, for which the oil and gas industry was a top donor.
Campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets found that since 2019, Vance has received over $340,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, the New York Times reported.
In 2022, in an interview on conservative talk radio, Vance said he didn't think there was a climate crisis. And even if there was, he said, it wouldn't be solved by buying "Chinese manufactured electric vehicles."
Vance has argued that EVs are enriching China at the expense of the American auto industry.
Vance's opposition is rooted in how the EV supply chain, including batteries and the critical metals they are made with, is largely controlled by China — "the dirtiest economy" in the world, he said. Then in the US, EVs are getting charged up on a power grid mostly composed of fossil fuels anyway.
Vance's position ignores the fact that tailpipe pollution from cars and trucks is the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions that are rapidly warming the planet.
Some $250 billion worth of investment by the federal government and private sector is pouring into North America's EV supply chain, from minerals to batteries to assembly, following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure law — two of President Joe Biden's signature climate laws.
In Vance's home state of Ohio, Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is helping fund a $3.5 billion project to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles and a new clean steel plant in the state run by U.S. steel giant Cleveland Cliffs.
Despite a blip earlier this year, Americans have been buying more EVs throughout the pandemic, which could comprise over 10% of all new cars sold nationally. According to a Kelley Blue Book analysis, Americans bought nearly 269,000 new EVs in the first quarter of 2024, down from the fourth quarter of 2023 but the first downturn since 2020.
Compared to 1.1 million EV sales in the US in 2023, the International Energy Agency estimates sales will grow to 2.5 million in 2025.
JD Vance, a critic of electric vehicles, received Elon Musk's endorsement.
Vance has expressed support for the oil industry and has proposed cutting EV subsidies.
Musk also opposes EV subsidies, although Tesla has benefited from past subsidies.
For years, JD Vance has criticized the switch to electric vehicles and said Teslas aren't his thing. Elon Musk endorsed him anyway.
The Ohio senator, and now the Republican vice presidential candidate, has the backing of Musk and other Silicon Valley tech billionaires like Peter Thiel and AOL founder Steve Case, even as Vance became a vocal critic of EVs and the tech industry during his first two years in office.
"If you have a Tesla — and I think they're kind of cool. I don't own one, they're pretty fast. But not my thing," Vance told The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show in 2022.
Vance said his anti-EV stance stems from what he sees as hypocrisy in the charging and manufacturing of the vehicles. While the US doesn't import many EVs directly from China, the country does dominate the supply chain for batteries and the critical minerals inside them. Back in the US, cars are also charged up on a mostly dirty power grid, Vance added, saying, "The whole EV thing is a scam."
"If you plug it into your wall, people think there's Keebler elves back there making energy in the walls," he said. "It comes, of course, from fossil fuels. So you're manufacturing cars in the dirtiest economy in the world. You're still relying on fossil fuels to produce energy."
Vance has also criticized President Joe Biden's tax incentives to encourage more Americans to buy EVs and introduced his own tax credit for gas- and diesel-powered vehicles manufactured in the US.
Related stories
Some of Silicon Valley is pumped about JD Vance. Other CEOs, not so much.
Trump goes all in by selecting JD Vance as his MAGA heir apparent
But none of this seems to be a problem for Musk. On Tuesday, he also voiced opposition to subsidies for EVs, noting that taking them away "will only help Tesla." Musk in past interviews has said Tesla's advantage over its competitors would widen if federal subsidies ended. Yet Tesla has received subsidies amounting to nearly $3 billion, such as in 2010 when the company got a $465 million federal loan.
On Monday, Musk committed to donating $45 million per month to a pro-Trump super PAC, even though Trump has similarly disproved of EVs, calling the Biden administration's support for EVs "ridiculous."
Here's what to do, eat, and see in Hong Kong during the day
Why Vance doesn't like EVs
Vance's opposition to EVs aligns with his recent pivot to being a climate denier.
As recently as a 2020 speech at Ohio State University, Vance said, "a climate problem exists in our society," noting the benefits of solar energy.
However, by 2022, he had changed his mind following his campaign for the Senate, for which the oil and gas industry was a top donor.
Campaign finance watchdog Open Secrets found that since 2019, Vance has received over $340,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, the New York Times reported.
In 2022, in an interview on conservative talk radio, Vance said he didn't think there was a climate crisis. And even if there was, he said, it wouldn't be solved by buying "Chinese manufactured electric vehicles."
Vance has argued that EVs are enriching China at the expense of the American auto industry.
Vance's opposition is rooted in how the EV supply chain, including batteries and the critical metals they are made with, is largely controlled by China — "the dirtiest economy" in the world, he said. Then in the US, EVs are getting charged up on a power grid mostly composed of fossil fuels anyway.
Vance's position ignores the fact that tailpipe pollution from cars and trucks is the largest source of US greenhouse gas emissions that are rapidly warming the planet.
Some $250 billion worth of investment by the federal government and private sector is pouring into North America's EV supply chain, from minerals to batteries to assembly, following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure law — two of President Joe Biden's signature climate laws.
In Vance's home state of Ohio, Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is helping fund a $3.5 billion project to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles and a new clean steel plant in the state run by U.S. steel giant Cleveland Cliffs.
Despite a blip earlier this year, Americans have been buying more EVs throughout the pandemic, which could comprise over 10% of all new cars sold nationally. According to a Kelley Blue Book analysis, Americans bought nearly 269,000 new EVs in the first quarter of 2024, down from the fourth quarter of 2023 but the first downturn since 2020.
Compared to 1.1 million EV sales in the US in 2023, the International Energy Agency estimates sales will grow to 2.5 million in 2025.
'Damn shameful': J.D. Vance met with uproar as questionable speech claims debunked
Kathleen Culliton
July 18, 2024
J.D. Vance. (Gage Skidmore.)
Sen. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Republican former President Donald Trump has picked as his running mate, was shamed this week for the questionable claim that undocumented immigrants caused his mother's addiction to drugs.
An X community note was added Wednesday to a Vance 2022 campaign ad called "Are you a racist?" in which he suggested undocumented people were the lone source of the narcotics that took over his mother's life.
"I nearly lost my mother to the poison coming across our border," Vance says. "Joe Biden's open border is killing Ohioans with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country."
The simple narrative Vance presents in his ad is challenged by the context of his mother's descent into addiction.
While Bev Vance ultimately did find herself addicted to heroin, which a 2022 White House report notes comes primarily from criminal organizations in Mexico, her substance abuse problems began with alcohol, multiple reports show.
The gateway between the two substances appears in a Washington Post report about Vance's "radicalization" that was published the same year as Vance's ad.
It notes Vance's mother "worked regularly as a nurse until she started stealing prescription narcotics and getting high."
Bev Vance's prescription opioid habit developed in the mid-1990s, about the same time the Food and Drug Administration approved Purdue Pharma's OxyContin and triggered an opioid crisis that plagues the nation to this day.
ALSO READ:‘Creepy weirdos’: Senator fears Trump WH staff would destroy government from ‘inside’
It's that context referenced in this week's Community Note, which reads, "Vance’s mother utilized her position as a nurse to steal prescribed medication from her patients, not because of undocumented immigrants."
And it was that context that outraged X users who viewed the ad and challenged its message.
"Damn shameful," replied X user @AspieJames.
"Even without the lie, this ad was disgusting," wrote @ChristinaKilis.
"This tells us exactly who he is," wrote X user Sandy. "He runs with the hares and the hounds."
Another X user reminded readers of criticism Vance faced for a failed nonprofit for people with opioid addictions that "didn’t spend one nickel on anybody," as a political opponent argued in 2022.
"Bold talk coming from a man who set up a fake charity to 'help those affected by the opioid crisis,'" replied Jesse Denney, "and then used all of the proceeds to fund his Senatw [sic] campaign instead of, you know... helping people."
A New York Times report notes, "Some of the nonprofit group’s own workers said they had drawn a different conclusion: They had been lured by the promise of helping Ohio, but instead had been used to help Mr. Vance start his career in politics."
Watch the ad below or click here.
Kathleen Culliton
July 18, 2024
J.D. Vance. (Gage Skidmore.)
Sen. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Republican former President Donald Trump has picked as his running mate, was shamed this week for the questionable claim that undocumented immigrants caused his mother's addiction to drugs.
An X community note was added Wednesday to a Vance 2022 campaign ad called "Are you a racist?" in which he suggested undocumented people were the lone source of the narcotics that took over his mother's life.
"I nearly lost my mother to the poison coming across our border," Vance says. "Joe Biden's open border is killing Ohioans with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country."
The simple narrative Vance presents in his ad is challenged by the context of his mother's descent into addiction.
While Bev Vance ultimately did find herself addicted to heroin, which a 2022 White House report notes comes primarily from criminal organizations in Mexico, her substance abuse problems began with alcohol, multiple reports show.
The gateway between the two substances appears in a Washington Post report about Vance's "radicalization" that was published the same year as Vance's ad.
It notes Vance's mother "worked regularly as a nurse until she started stealing prescription narcotics and getting high."
Bev Vance's prescription opioid habit developed in the mid-1990s, about the same time the Food and Drug Administration approved Purdue Pharma's OxyContin and triggered an opioid crisis that plagues the nation to this day.
ALSO READ:‘Creepy weirdos’: Senator fears Trump WH staff would destroy government from ‘inside’
It's that context referenced in this week's Community Note, which reads, "Vance’s mother utilized her position as a nurse to steal prescribed medication from her patients, not because of undocumented immigrants."
And it was that context that outraged X users who viewed the ad and challenged its message.
"Damn shameful," replied X user @AspieJames.
"Even without the lie, this ad was disgusting," wrote @ChristinaKilis.
"This tells us exactly who he is," wrote X user Sandy. "He runs with the hares and the hounds."
Another X user reminded readers of criticism Vance faced for a failed nonprofit for people with opioid addictions that "didn’t spend one nickel on anybody," as a political opponent argued in 2022.
"Bold talk coming from a man who set up a fake charity to 'help those affected by the opioid crisis,'" replied Jesse Denney, "and then used all of the proceeds to fund his Senatw [sic] campaign instead of, you know... helping people."
A New York Times report notes, "Some of the nonprofit group’s own workers said they had drawn a different conclusion: They had been lured by the promise of helping Ohio, but instead had been used to help Mr. Vance start his career in politics."
Watch the ad below or click here.
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