As JD Vance fundraises in Indiana today with his ultra-wealthy and special interest donors, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“JD Vance has made clear that he is hellbent on pushing Donald Trump’s extreme Project 2025 agenda for his ultra-wealthy and special interest backers – as long as they bring a checkbook. The Trump-Vance ticket’s reckless Project 2025 plans would gift tax breaks to billionaires, risk supercharging inflation, and put working families last after Trump’s last tax scam incentivized outsourcing and left billionaires paying a lower tax rate than the middle class. Americans can’t afford Trump and Vance’s extreme and expensive MAGAnomics agenda that would raise costs and devastate working families.”

JD Vance has made clear he will do anything for his ultra-wealthy and special interest backers – and they’ve returned the favor by pushing to put their lackey on Donald Trump’s ticket.

CNN: “A day before Donald Trump’s deadline to pick a running mate, after months of private conversations with every corner of his orbit, the former president took a call from a new voice.

“That person, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, was one of several people urging Trump in the final moments to select Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

“On Monday, Trump finally announced his choice: Vance would be his running mate.”

New York Times: “That day in early 2021, Mr. Vance was ushered into Mr. Trump’s office at Mar-a-Lago by one of the most secretive donors in G.O.P. politics: Peter Thiel, the billionaire founder of PayPal who broke with Silicon Valley to support Mr. Trump for president in 2016. Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was at the meeting, too.

“Allies of Mr. Vance, including Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, ran a counter campaign to reassure Mr. Trump about the selection, with supportive calls to the former president continuing until the moment Mr. Trump finally told Mr. Vance of his decision, on Monday afternoon, less than half an hour before he announced his choice on social media…

“Mr. Vance helped pave the way for Mr. Trump with some Silicon Valley donors. He spent months working on David Sacks, an entrepreneur whom Mr. Vance has called ‘one of his closest confidants in politics,’ to support Mr. Trump. That effort resulted in a $12 million event for the Trump campaign. Mr. Sacks said at the event that it ‘would never have happened’ without Mr. Vance’s support, according to a person familiar with his remarks.

“Mr. Musk, one of the world’s richest men and the owner of the website X, has emerged as a quiet ally of Mr. Vance’s, according to two people briefed on the relationship. Mr. Musk has viewed Mr. Biden’s re-election as an existential crisis for the nation and told Mr. Trump directly that he should choose Mr. Vance as his running mate, describing the Trump-Vance pairing as ‘beautiful,’ according to one of the people with knowledge of their relationship. Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.”

Cincinnati Enquirer: “Super PAC supporting potential Senate candidate J.D. Vance gets $10 million donation from PayPal cofounder”

“Thiel, a German-American billionaire and early investor in Facebook, gave $10 million to Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC formed last month to support Vance’s possible bid, said Bryan Lanza, a communications adviser to the super PAC. 

“The Mercer family also made a ‘significant contribution,’ Lanza said. Hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his family were key supporters of former President Donald Trump’s presidential bid. Mercer was an important investor in Breitbart News and a force in the campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.”

Cleveland.com: “Vance, meanwhile, has struggled to keep up financially, not launching general election campaign ads until last month. But backing from a single donor famously helped him win the Republican primary in May…

“They also include some well-known national Republican mega-donors, such as Steve Wynn, the casino magnate whom Republicans previously cut off donations over sexual misconduct allegations; and Rebekah Mercer, whose family helped fund Breitbart, the right-wing political news website.

“Vance took in more than $310,000 in money from PACS, of which $248,000 came from single-issue groups. That includes $5,000 from the anti-abortion CatholicVote.org PAC, $5,000 from the conservative Koch Industries, and fossil fuel interests like Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Phillips 66 PAC, which each gave $5,000.

“Concerns over Vance’s lack of funding led the Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-aligned Super PAC, to reserve $28 million in TV ads that began airing after Labor Day. The SLF raises vast amounts of money from across the country, including $31.5 million from One Nation, an affiliated dark-money group that doesn’t have to disclose its donors, $10 million from Kenneth Griffin, a Chicago-based hedge-fund manager.”

Axios: “Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a top possible VP pick for former President Trump, has spent the past six months lobbying some of the heaviest hitters in Silicon Valley to back Trump.”

Vance backs Trump’s Project 2025 agenda that includes giving handouts to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations (again) at the expense of working Americans and risks supercharged inflation.

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Trump: “You’re all people that have a lot of money … You’re rich as hell. … We’re gonna give you tax cuts.”

Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

The Guardian: “Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

Axios: “Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists are jumping into the presidential campaign with a stark warning: Former President Trump’s plans would reignite inflation and cause lasting harm to the global economy if he wins in November.”

Project 2025: “The corporate income tax rate should be reduced to 18 percent.”

The Atlantic: “Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation”

Vance opposes legislation that protects unions, standing firmly against working people.

Politico: “Vance has consistently opposed the PRO Act, the ‘holy grail of pro-union labor reform’ that organized labor and its allies on the Hill have been fighting for over two years to get passed. … Vance’s skepticism of the PRO Act is part of a more fundamental skepticism that he harbors toward organized labor.”

Fast Company: “Vance also voted in favor of a resolution to strike down the NLRB’s updated joint-employer rule, which would have given workers more leverage when organizing at companies—like Amazon—that rely heavily on third-party contractors, by forcing both employers to participate in labor negotiations.”