JD Vance formally picked as Trump's vice-presidential nominee

Mr Vance has become an increasingly important player in the world of Make America Great Again [MAGA] politics.

The choice suggests the former president knows that this election will be won and lost in a handful of industrial Midwest battleground states - Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

In the Senate he has been one of the biggest congressional skeptics of aid to Ukraine.

In recent months, he has introduced bills to withhold federal funds for universities where students have protested over the Gaza war or that employ undocumented immigrants.

He sponsored legislation in March that would cut the Chinese government out of US capital markets if it does not follow international trade law.

He has also frequently appeared at Trump's campaign events, and travelled to New York City to attend Trump's fraud trial.

Mr Vance, who was baptised as a Catholic in 2019, is anti-abortion. He has backed Trump's repeated statement that the issue is a matter for individual states.

He is one of the youngest vice-presidential nominees in US history.

Attending the RNC, Ohio Lt Gov Jon Husted called Mr Vance "the living embodiment of the American dream".

"He came from humble beginnings and he never forgot where he came from," he said.

Mr Vance and Trump will face the Democratic nominees, President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, at the 5 November general election.

In brief remarks to reporters on Monday, Mr Biden criticised Mr Vance as "a clone of Trump on the issues".

The Biden campaign said that Trump picked Mr Vance "because Vance will do what [Trump's former Vice-President] Mike Pence wouldn't ... bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even if it means breaking the law and no matter the harm to the American people".