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JD Vance accepts GOP nomination and highlights Biden’s age and his youth
Washington — Ohio Sen. JD Vance accepted the GOP’s nomination for vice president on Wednesday, closing out the third day of the Republican National Convention with a speech that sought to remind the party that it is a “big tent” with the shared goal of a thriving nation for generations to come.
Vance’s speech marked his first formal appearance as Trump’s running mate, and provided a platform to introduce himself to the nation as the 2024 race for the White House heads into the final months. The former president watched Vance’s speech from his box in the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
“Tonight, Mr. Chairman, I stand here humbled and I am overwhelmed with gratitude to say I officially accept your nomination to be vice president of the United States of America,” he said.
Elected to represent Ohio in the Senate in 2022, Vance detailed to the audience his upbringing in a small town in Ohio and paid homage to his grandmother, who he called Mamaw, and who raised Vance while his mother struggled with addiction. Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins, attended the speech and was seated next to House Speaker Mike Johnson in the box for family and friends. She received a standing ovation from Trump and those in the arena.
Charting his rise from Appalachia to enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps after 9/11, to attending Yale Law School to running for the Senate, Vance said he learned of the nation’s need for a leader who “fights for the people who built this country.”
“President Trump represents America’s last best hope to restore what, if lost, may never be found again: A country where a working class boy, born far from the halls of power, can stand on this stage as the next vice president of the United States of America,” Vance, 39, said.
Trump announced Vance as his running mate in a social media post Monday during a roll call vote of state delegations that saw him become the GOP’s nominee for president. Following the roll call, delegates nominated Vance as the party’s vice presidential nominee.
He and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, took to the convention floor ahead of his nomination, which was approved by acclamation.
Chilukuri Vance introduced her husband at the convention, calling him “the most interesting person I knew.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream. A boy from Middletown, Ohio, raised by his grandmother through tough times, chosen to help lead our country through some of its greatest challenges,” she said.
During his remarks, Vance raised the attempted assassination against Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, and said his actions in the wake of the shooting demonstrate his commitment to the nation.
“As we meet tonight, we cannot forget that this evening could have been so much different. Instead of a day of celebration, this could have been a day of heartache and mourning,” he said.
Vance continued: “When Donald J. Trump rose to his feet in that Pennsylvania field, all of America stood with him. And what did he call us to do for our country? To fight. To fight for America. Even in his most perilous moment we were on his mind.”
Trump was wounded in the attack when a bullet grazed his year, and an attendee was killed. Two others were injured.
In the wake of the attempted assassination, the former president called for unity, and several of his former opponents during the Republican primary delivered speeches at the convention. Most notable among them was former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who announced her endorsement of Trump during her speech Tuesday.
Vance, too, projected a message of unity and urged Americans to support the party that is unafraid to debate ideas in search of the best solution.
“We have a big tent in this party, on everything from national security to economic policy,” he said. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is we love this country, and we are united to win.”
The GOP of the next four years, Vance said, is “united in our love for America and committed to free speech and the open exchange of ideas.”
Vance characterized the U.S. as not just an idea, but a homeland that will succeed and thrive if its leaders “remember that America is a nation and its citizens deserve leaders who put its interests first.”
“We won’t agree on every issue of course, not even in this room. We may disagree from time to time about how best to reinvigorate American industry and renew American families. That’s fine. In fact, it’s more than fine, it’s good,” he said. “But never forget that the reason why this united Republican Party exists, why we do this, why we care about those great ideas and that great history, is that we want this nation to thrive for centuries to come.”
At 39 years old, Vance is the first Millennial on a major party ticket. His age places him in stark contrast with Trump, 78, and President Biden, who at 81 is facing calls from within the Democratic Party to withdraw from the race after his shaky debate performance last month.
Vance, who gained prominence with the publication of his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” was critical of Trump during the 2016 campaign but apologized for his derogatory remarks in recent years. The book has risen back to the top of bestseller lists after Vance was picked to join Trump at the top of the ticket.
Former President Donald Trump, an avowed proponent of tax cuts, is floating the idea of reversing a measure passed during his tenure in the White House that effectively raised taxes for many U.S. homeowners.
In a post Tuesday on Truth Social, Trump suggested he would scrap a $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes (SALT) that was passed as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — a massive revamp that he has said boosted economic growth.
Now, in the run-up to the November election, Trump said in the post he would “get SALT back, lower your taxes, and so much more,” although he stopped short of offering details. Trump made the post ahead of a speech he’s giving Wednesday at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Trump’s new proposal for getting rid of his $10,000 SALT deduction cap comes as the presidential hopeful is pitching several additional tax cuts that would, if enacted, reduce taxes for major groups of voters. He’s also vowed to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, a pledge that could get support from the nation’s senior citizens, as well as to end income taxes on tipped workers and on overtime pay, ideas that would help lower- and middle-income Americans.
Yet Trump’s reversal on the SALT deduction has sparked skepticism from lawmakers as well as economists and policy experts.
“So … now Trump is against the SALT tax cap which *checks notes* is a key part of the — only — major piece of legislation passed during his administration?” noted Chris Koski, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, on X.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from Nassau, Queens, said in a statement on Wednesday that he is “happy that the former president is saying that he has finally reversed his devastating decision in 2017 to cap the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction.” He also urged Trump to convince Republican lawmakers to vote to restore the full deduction “if he is truly serious.”
The SALT deduction cap “has been a body blow to my constituents for the past 7 years,” Suozzi added.
Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, wrote on X,”Donald Trump took away your SALT dedications and hurt so many Long Island families. Now, he’s coming to Long Island to pretend he supports SALT. It won’t work.”
Asked for details about Trump’s proposal to restore the SALT writeoff, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign told CBS MoneyWatch: “While his pro-growth, pro-energy policies will make life affordable again, President Trump is also going to quickly move tax relief for working people and seniors.”
Here’s what to know about the SALT deduction.
What is the SALT deduction?
The state and local tax deduction allows taxpayers who itemize to deduct property taxes, sales taxes and state or local income taxes from their federal income taxes. Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, there was no limit on how much people could deduct through the SALT deduction.
But the 2017 tax overhaul passed under Trump limited the deduction to $10,000 – a blow to many homeowners in states with high property taxes, many of which are Democratic leaning. At the time of the law’s passage, the Treasury Department estimated that almost 11 million taxpayers in high-tax states like New York and New Jersey would forfeit $323 billion in deductions.
Who benefits from the SALT deduction?
Homeowners with high property taxes, such as people in New York, New Jersey and California, were the biggest beneficiaries of the the full SALT deduction.
But some experts also noted that the SALT deduction primarily put more money in the pockets of higher-earning Americans. About 80% of the full SALT deduction had helped people earning more than $100,000 a year, according to the Tax Foundation.
What happened after Trump capped the SALT deduction at $10,000?
The limit has increasingly impacted middle-class homeowners across the U.S. because of rising property taxes and incomes. Some lawmakers have also sought to either repeal or increase the SALT cap, but none of those efforts have borne fruit.
Earlier this year, some lawmakers sought to double the SALT deduction cap to $20,000 for married couples, with the change retroactive for the 2023 tax year. But that bill was blocked in the House in February.
Won’t the SALT deduction cap expire anyway?
Yes, the SALT deduction cap is a provision that’s due to expire in 2025, as are many other parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, such as a reduction of the individual tax brackets. But Trump has previously indicated he wants to extend the provisions in his signature tax law.
How much would it cost the U.S. to repeal the SALT deduction cap?
It won’t be cheap, according to the the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank that focuses on budget and policy issues.
Eliminating the $10,000 deduction limit “would increase the cost of extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) by $1.2 trillion over a decade,” the group estimates, adding that such a measure would be a “costly mistake.”
Extending the TCJA’s tax cuts would increase the nation’s deficit by $3.9 trillion over the next decade, the group estimates. By adding in a expiration or repeal of the SALT deduction cap, that would grow to $5.1 trillion, it added.
“Lawmakers should not extend the TCJA without a plan to – at a minimum – offset the costs of extension, but ideally the plan would raise revenues relative to current law and help put the nation’s debt on a better trajectory,” the group said in a statement.
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Craig Newmark, the founder of online classified-ads site Craigslist, thinks the U.S. has a cybersecurity problem.
The entrepreneur turned philanthropist has pledged to donate $100 million to help safeguard the country from potential future cyberattacks, the Wall Street Journal first reported. Newmark will allocate $50 million to protect infrastructure, like power grids, from cyberattacks, including from foreign nations. The other half of his donation will be put toward educating the general public about how to safeguard their personal information, according to the report.
Newmark, 71, retired from the company he founded in 2018.
“The country is under attack,” Newmark told the Wall Street Journal. He said that cybersecurity experts who are working to protect the country from attack “need people to champion them.”
Today, many households make use of connected appliances or smart devices that can make them vulnerable to being hacked by criminals. At the corporate level, cyberattacks have become increasingly common.
“In the current cyberwar, the fight is on our own shores, and we all need to play an active role for the protection of our country and ourselves,” Newmark writes on his website.
In June, a hacking group took down CDK Global’s software platform, crippling auto dealerships across the U.S. CDK said that hackers demanded a ransom in order to restore its systems. In February, hackers infiltrated payments manager Change Healthcare, paralyzing segments of the U.S. Health care system. They are but two examples of the tremendous repercussions a cyberattack can have on an industry.
As part of his latest commitment, Newmark, who has pledged to give away nearly all of his wealth to charity, is making donations to a project out of the University of Chicago’s public policy school that trains cybersecurity volunteers to strengthen local infrastructure. Child internet-safety group Common Sense Media, is another beneficiary, according to the WSJ report.
The large majority of the $100 million pledge has not yet been allocated, and organizations can apply for donations through Newmark’s philanthropic organization, Craig Newmark Philanthropies.
On the foundation’s website, Newmark says he likes to donate to organizations that he believes in and lets them spend the money as they see fit. “Okay, what I do is find people who are really good at their jobs, and who can tolerate my sense of humor. I provide them with resources, and then get outta their way,” he states.
In addition to cybersecurity, other causes Newmark champions include support for military families and veterans, safeguarding trustworthy journalism and pigeon rescue.
