When Donald Trump tapped JD Vance, the US senator and never-Trumper turned Maga superstar, as his vice-presidential pick, the Rust belt populist was in for a rude awakening.
In a viral video, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz called Vance and the Maga movement “just weird”, an insult that quickly became a meme. The reintroduction of his past remarks on the impropriety of “childless cat ladies” being involved in government spread almost as fast as an online joke about the Ohioan having intimate relations with a couch.
Other viral videos of Vance struggling to make small talk and awkwardly laughing at himself during campaign events seemed to give the impression of an unserious candidate. The Hillbilly Elegy author and former Silicon Valley investor appeared to lack the charisma of his running mate, and for much of the summer, pundits wondered whether Trump regretted his pick.
