Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, we preview JD Vance's speech tonight accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination. Plus, senior national political reporter Jonathan Allen explores the Trump family dynamics on display at the GOP convention.
Programming note: Stay tuned for a special edition of the From the Politics Desk newsletter each night after the Republican National Convention this week, bringing you all the latest news and analysis from our team in Milwaukee.
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Vance plans to draw on his blue-collar roots as Trump’s running mate
By Henry J. Gomez, Hallie Jackson and Kristen Welker
MILWAUKEE — When Sen. JD Vance accepts the Republican nomination for vice president here Wednesday night, the Ohioan will draw on his turbulent upbringing in a family that wrestled with drug addiction and other socioeconomic crises in a Midwest steel town.
It’s a story of working-class struggle familiar to those who read “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance’s bestselling 2016 memoir, or saw the 2020 movie that Netflix adapted from it.
And though Vance’s story will be new to many in a broader prime-time audience, former President Donald Trump’s campaign hopes it will ring true and reinforce his strength with blue-collar voters in battleground states. Vance will connect his experiences to issues like trade, inflation, immigration and the fentanyl crisis and to Trump’s policies for addressing them, multiple sources familiar with his speech told NBC News.
Vance also is expected to emphasize his military background. The former Marine is the first post-9/11 veteran to run on a major party ticket, and the first veteran at all on a major party’s ticket since Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., ran for president in 2008.
In interviews this week, many GOP officials and delegates offered the same three words when asked about Vance’s strengths: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those states were key to Trump’s winning coalition in 2020, but four years later he lost all three by narrow margins to President Joe Biden.
Charlie Kirk, a young right-wing leader within the MAGA movement who advocated for Vance’s selection, said he believes Vance’s youth and geographic base will complement Trump.
“We have the lowest number of undecided voters of any major presidential election in the modern era,” Kirk said. “This is a base turnout election, and it’s a regional election. It’s closer to 20 or 30 mayors’ races than it is a presidential election. It’s western Pennsylvania, southwestern Michigan, right where we are, right here, southeastern Wisconsin. JD Vance is the Rust Belt boost candidate.”
Welcome to the race: In a new video, Vice President Kamala Harris knocked Vance as a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s “extreme agenda.”
RNC night 3: The theme is “Make America Strong Once Again,” with speakers expected to focus on foreign policy, national security and the military. Aside from Vance and his wife, here are the other notable names on the convention schedule tonight, via NBC News’ Olympia Sonnier:
Trump family members: Donald Trump Jr. and his daughter, Kai Trump, and fiancee, Kimberly Guilfoyle. (More on the family dynamics below.)
Governors: Doug Burgum of North Dakota (a VP finalist) and Greg Abbott of Texas.
House members: Brian Mast of Florida, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Monica De La Cruz of Texas, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Michael Waltz of Florida, and Ronny Jackson of Texas.
NBC News’ Dasha Burns and Dareh Gregorian report that Jackson, who was Trump’s White House physician, examined his former patient after Saturday’s assassination attempt and has remained by his side during much of the convention.
Plus, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York are scheduled to speak.
Former Trump administration officials: Kellyanne Conway (former counselor), Callista Gingrich (former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See), Richard Grenell (former acting director of national intelligence), Peter Navarro (former trade adviser who was released from prison today), and Tom Homan (former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
Stay up to date on the latest from the GOP convention with our live blog →
The MAGA wing of the Trump family takes center stage
By Jonathan Allen
MILWAUKEE — The roles of Trump’s most valued set of advisers and surrogates — members of his own family — have shifted over his nine years in the political arena, with more recent changes reflecting a tighter adherence to the political, policy and personality preferences of his Make America Great Again base.
Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner — criticized as symbols of nepotism run amok by the left and by Trump loyalists as too close to the establishment when they served as White House advisers — have publicly kept their distance since his 2020 defeat. Former first lady Melania Trump has been all but absent from her husband’s third campaign for the Oval Office.
All three plan to be present at the Republican convention here Thursday, but it’s a different troika — Donald Trump Jr., daughter-in-law Lara Trump and her husband, Eric Trump — that has emerged in this campaign as the most influential set inside the Trump family.
Their rise is evident in Lara Trump’s appointment as a co-chair of the Republican National Committee this year and the sons’ insistence, at the eleventh hour, that their father name Vance as his running mate.
Even before the patriarch’s close brush with death Saturday, he kept his family deeply engaged in their namesake businesses, his campaigns and his White House operations. But the failed attempt to kill him has made his family’s support for his political ambitions all the more poignant.
“We almost witnessed the assassination of a former president and probably a future president on live TV,” Eric Trump told MSNBC’s Katy Tur on Tuesday. “And, you know, not only would it be devastating to me as a son — I mean, there’s no one in the world I love more — but think about how that’s devastating to a nation.”
🗞️ Today’s top stories
- ☕ MAGA decaf: Trump's campaign has offered suggestions and directly edited the final speeches of convention speakers in an effort to tone down the political rhetoric. Read more →
- 📺 Debate club: The Trump campaign said it wouldn’t agree to a VP debate prior to the Democratic National Convention. Read more →
- 🥁 Steady drumbeat: Rep. Adam Schiff, the former Intelligence Committee chair who is running for the Senate in California, became the latest prominent Democrat to urge Biden to end his presidential campaign. Read more →
- 🚂 Full steam ahead (for now): Still, Democrats plan to formally renominate Biden in a virtual roll call vote in the first week of August, before the party’s national convention, despite protests from some who want more time to consider potential alternatives. Read more →
- ⚫ Shooting fallout: House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans are calling for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle after a gunman tried to assassinate Trump. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security announced it will investigate the Secret Service’s security operation. Read more →
- 🔦 In the spotlight: Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is earning bipartisan praise for his public presence and private communication in the wake of the Trump rally shooting in his state. Read more →
- ⚖️ Trump legal update: Special counsel Jack Smith formally appealed the decision from Judge Aileen Cannon to dismiss the classified documents case against Trump. Read more →
That’s all from the Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at [email protected]
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