Here's to Know JD Vance: New Vice President of the United States
- (Angelina Katsanis/Pool Photo via AP)
Jakarta, VIVA – JD Vance officially sworn in as the 50th vice president of the United States, deputy to President Donald Trump and potentially the future of the president's long-running populist "Make America Great Again" movement.
Born James David Bowman and raised by his maternal grandparents — whose surname he later adopted — the 40-year-old former senator and father of three grew up in a steel manufacturing town in Ohio and joined the US Marines after graduating high school.
He completed a six-month tour of Iraq in a noncombat military journalist role in 2005, as quoted from DW site.
Pelantikan Wakil Presiden Amerika Serikat JD Vance
- (Foto AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
After leaving the Marines, he graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He later switched from law to tech investing in California, where he started his own venture capital firm.
He also met his wife Usha Chilukuri at Yale.
Vance succeeds Kamala Harris in the role of second-in-command. Harris ran as the Democratic Party candidate against Trump in November's presidential election.
The role of the vice president
The vice presidency has become a more prominent role since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, which resulted in Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson taking the presidential oath aboard Air Force One just hours after the shooting.
Rarely had such a public ascendency — in both the national and global eye — taken place.
The US Constitution outlines the role of the vice president as one to assume command if the president is unable to perform their duties due to "Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of said Office."
The vice president could also assume the top job if they and a cabinet majority agreed the president was unfit for duty.
The constitution names the VP as the president of the senate, casting a tiebreaking vote if required.
Recent presidents have used their VP pick to build bridges with target communities. Trump's first running-mate, Mike Pence, helped him connect with the Republican Party's conservative evangelical wing, while Joe Biden's choice of Harris in 2020 was seen as a way to contrast his age with youth and put the first woman of color and Asian-American into the deputy's chair.
