Dubai: For Donald J. Trump, the last few days marked a pivotal moment in his bid to reclaim the White House.
Just two days after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt that grazed his ear, he announced J.D. Vance as his running mate and successfully fought off an indictment accusing him of mishandling classified information.
A Florida judge appointed by Trump has dismissed his criminal case involving mishandling top-secret documents, marking a significant victory for the former president.
Trump promptly called for an end to his other pending cases in light of this decision. The ruling eliminates a major legal threat as Trump pursues a return to the White House against President Joe Biden, amid multiple criminal investigations.
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Federal Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision, citing the unlawful appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith by Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022, led to the dismissal of the case.
The events are poised to strengthen his prospects in the upcoming November presidential election.”
Trump himself marvelled at his good fortune. “Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here,” he said.
Vance was once a fierce Trump antagonist, but he has made a U-turn to establish himself as one of the billionaire’s most ar-dent defenders.
Vance, who at 39 is barely half Trump’s age - and the first millennial on a major US party presidential ticket
His wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up in a San Diego suburb. She and Vance met at Yale Law School, and the pair were married in Kentucky in 2014. They have 3 children.
Major Silicon Valley investors hailed Trump’s choice, a move that puts the technology industry closer to centre stage in Washington if the former president takes the White House in November.
Tech industry thrilled
Elon Musk called the decision a “great choice” and said the lineup “resounds with victory” in a post on X, the social platform he owns. David Sacks, an investor and Trump supporter scheduled to speak at the GOP convention on Monday night, called Vance an “American patriot” in a post.
Vance’s proximity to the tech industry has thrilled even former Democrats in tech. One supporter is Chamath Palihapitiya, a former donor to Hillary Clinton who appears alongside Sacks on the tech podcast All In, where the hosts refer to each other as besties. After Trump’s announcement about Vance, he tweeted, “A Bestie adjacent as the VP?!?!?! ????????????????”
Crystal McKellar, founder and managing partner of Aloft VC, worked with Vance at Mithril Capital in 2012 and greeted the news enthusiastically.
“He will be good for Silicon Valley because he is a good free market capitalist who believes in growth and innovation and eliminating the regulation that strangles growth,” she said in a text, Bloomberg reported.. “And he’ll be good for the country for all the same reasons and because he feels genuine compassion for those forgotten and left behind by progress.”
Biden's reaction
Asked if the Trump shooting had changed the trajectory of the election, President Joe Biden, who has a long history of gaffes by mixing up the names of the Ukrainian and Russian leaders, replied: “I don’t know, and you don’t know either.”
Biden defended both his “mental acuity” and his rhetoric about Trump, in a second TV interview aimed at ending calls for him to quit his reelection bid following a disastrous debate.
“I’m old,” Biden said. “But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one. And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good.”
He added: “I understand why people say, ‘God, he’s 81 years old. Whoa. What’s he gonna be when he’s 83 years old, 84 years?’ It’s a legitimate question to ask.”
