What does Trump think of Vance? Well – I asked him. Here’s what he said

In his speech delivered earlier that evening to the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, Trump had even struck an elegiac tone.

“We’re going to have a good time listening to music,” Trump had told the crowd of MAGA diehards, “because I’m getting a little bit tired of politics now.” Tired of politics? From the man who used to say he was tired of winning? It had been an astonishing admission. 

“Tremendous success. Two absolutely sold-out arenas,” Trump told us on the tarmac, his gravelly voice a little hoarse as he repeated for the umpteenth time his false claims that the American Airlines Center, where the convention had taken place, had been completely full. It hadn’t.

“The singer at the end, Christopher, was great,” he told us, as if the music had been the highlight of the evening. 

The “Christopher” in question was the tenor Christopher Macchio, who had taken the stage alongside Trump, and watching the two of them, closing out the convention together, there had been the unmistakable sense that it was the beginning of the end of an era.

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Trump stood slowly swaying to the music while the bow-tied Macchio belted out “America, America”, as red, white, blue and – of course – gold balloons dropped from the ceiling.

As the playlist moved on to “Ave Maria”, no family or fellow cabinet members had joined Trump on stage as they usually did at these astonishingly choreographed conventions. 

It had just been Trump, an opera singer, some balloons, and a whiff of nostalgia – the clearest vision yet of what Republicans have been dreading: life without Trump.

It was all the more remarkable as it had come just minutes after vice president JD Vance had given the speech of his life. Vance’s primetime address set him up for a job he insists he still hasn’t decided he wants – Trump’s heir apparent in 2028. 

Vance has long been considered the frontrunner but until now the MAGA faithful have not been convinced. Too bookish, too bearded and, despite his “Hillbilly Elegy” roots, too much of a political shapeshifter.

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Vance was greeted by cheers of “JD!” and then by chants of “48” – a reference to the fact that the next president will be America’s 48th. “We’ve got to take care of business this November, then we’ll worry about what comes next,” Vance said with a chuckle – but nobody was buying the fake modesty. 

He had an almost-too-perfect Trumpian moment when he confronted a demonstrator holding up a Mexican flag, saying: “My friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there, I’ll buy the plane ticket.” That one moment of improv aside, his well-scripted speech had been more reminiscent of the convention addresses of yore than Trump’s rambling, rabble-rousing “weaves”.

After Vance’s speech, a MAGA supporter behind me who had been bellowing throughout said to her friend: “That was pretty good, actually.” And as the vice president left the stage and Trump emerged, the pair briefly shook hands and leaned in for what can only be described as a “cheek bump”, before the president gave him a fatherly pat and a couple of encouraging words. 

On the runway, in the Texan gloom, all the bombast of the convention seemed long gone. The president wasn’t smiling and his batteries seemed a little low – until he roared into life and snarled “not you” at a female US television reporter who had asked a question he didn’t like. 

Then it was my turn. I asked the president how he rated JD Vance for 2028 after his performance at the convention. “He did very well tonight,” Trump told me. “Very talented guy, he’s been a great vice president. I think he did a very good job.”

It sounded like an endorsement. Almost. But could Trump ever really ever really endorse anyone but himself?