Mauro della Porta Raffo.
«Only those who have the courage to make a prediction can be wrong, it is clear, because if one does not make predictions he never makes a mistake. But I say that, to avoid serious unexpected events or unexpected historical events, the American vice president JD Vance will be the president of the United States after Trump for the next two mandates ». Mauro Della Porta Raffo speaks to the reasoning, by virtue of his passion for America and the exterminated, meticulous knowledge of the history and institutions of the United States (is among other things emeritus president of the Italy-USA association). When he invites him to his living room of Door to doorBruno Vespa, just to give an idea, presents him jokingly stating that if Mauro della Porta Raffo did not exist, the story would be stopped at 1491 and America would not have been discovered. “You know that I have always guessed the prediction on the American president – except one, thirteen over fourteen – since I was four years old, when I spotted Truman’s election to the detriment of Thomas E. Dewey”.
The pull towards the European Union, the verbal aggressions, rough and directed to Zelensky under the eyes of an almost pleased Trump. Is the political protagonism of Vance’s political protagonism in the history of American vice -presidents?
«I would say no, even if in the case of Vance the media, much more powerful, capillaries and extensions of the past, have shown this activism all over the world, making it universally evident, unlike previous eras. The fact is that the institutional figure of the vice -president is not defined in details in the Constitution as that of the President. In the American paper it is simply said that there is the vice -president. The history of American democracy must then be considered. In the first presidential elections, those who usually came second in the conquest of the great voters who usually came. ”
Could it happen that president and vice -president belonged to different parties?
“Yes, it happened. 1796 is the year of the third elections in the history of the United States. George Washington does not apply for a third possible mandate (then there were no mandate limits until 1951, when the twenty -second amendment was approved which involves maximum two). At that time there was not yet the presentation of the President-Viceprescent Ticket, to be presented before popular consultations, as happens today, but the system I told them. And so it happens that in 1796 the federalist John Adams, the only federalist president of history, arrives first. Second is Thomas Jefferson, of the Democratic-Repubblication Party, to counter the Federalist Party. Therefore, for a four -year period, there were a president and deputy belonging to two different parties ».
Harry Truman, on the left, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
So the weight of a vice -president depends on how much the president grants it?
“Exactly. The figures of the vice -presidents were, depending on the will of the president and his intentions, more or less important. The only thing that the Constitution foresees is that the vice -president is president of the Senate. This regardless of the existing majority. Even if the majority is of the opposite party, the vice -president is always by law at the head of the Senate ».
Can we say that the powers of the vice -president are “accordion”, like those of the President of the Italian Republic?
«The comparison is not appropriate. It is only the president who decides what the role of his deputy will be. Before getting to the current situation, which is very particular, I make some historical examples. Going forward in time, there have been presidents who gave the deputy wide sleeve with specific assignments, and others who kept it completely unaware of what was happening. When Harry Truman becomes vice -president with the fourth mandate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the 1944 elections, what happens? That the good Franklin delano, accustomed to commanding, does not keep it in any consideration. He doesn’t even make him participate in the cabinet meetings ».
Truman, however, will become president after the sudden death of Roosevelt, on April 12, 1945, less than a month after the end of the Second World War in Europe.
“And the good Harry Truman finds himself in the buttons room at the helm of a country he knows anything.”
And speaking of buttons, he will crush those of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“During the Jalta conference, Stalin committed himself to Roosevelt and Churchill to enter the war against Japan within three months from the end of the conflict in Europe, on May 9, 1945. The bombs were released on the eve of the expiry of those three months, on 6 and 9 August 1945, almost on the wool thread, to prevent the Soviet Union from being present at the Table of the negotiations with Japan. All decisions that Truman took on the spot, because until Roosevelt’s death he knew very little about what was to do ».
Are there opposite cases of presidents who give large prerogatives to their deputy?
«In 1976 the elections were won by Jimmy Carter, who defeated Gerald Ford. His deputy, Walter Mondale, obtained great recognition and would be a participant in the executive policy, aware of everything that happened in the administration. If Roosevelt, to put it brutally, did not want anyone who broke the boxes, Carter thought that a sort of cohabitation could be useful ».
When the vice -president takes the place of the president, what happens? Who appoints another vice president?
«Until 1967, when the twenty -fifth amendment was issued, in the event of a resort, the place of vice -president remained vacant. After JFK’s murder, Johnson takes his place but nobody becomes deputy. He expected the next deadline to make a new ticket. In 1967 an amendment was launched to resolve the matter: after the takeover, the new president appoints a new vice -president who, however, must be approved by both Congress Chambers. This happens the first time on August 8, 1974, in the aftermath of Nixon’s resignation for the Watergate scandal. After becoming president the next day, on August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford appoints Nelson Rockefeller, former Governor of New York, as Vice President of the United States. The appointment took place on August 20, 1974 and Rockefeller was confirmed by Congress on December 19, 1974, taking an oath on the same day. This is to give a complete picture of the situation ».
Walter Mondale, on the left, with Jimmy Carter.
And we come to the present day, to the Trump-Vance ticket.
“The fundamental error that is made to try to understand who Donald Trump is is to think that he has political ideology. Trump is a maverick».
Intends to an outsider …
«In the Far West, the maverick It was originally the head of cattle that had not been marked and of which it was not known who belonged to. The term was applied in politics to those who go a little on their own, without particular party memberships and is not ideologically placed. If we go to see Trump’s past, we know that, on the occasion of the presidential elections, which foresee for those who register to declare a party fictional, they register (as shown by the electoral lists) from time to time to various sides, from the Democrats to the Reform party by Ross Perot up to the Republicans. Therefore, he is a very particular character, without ideology, extremely pragmatic. Apply economic bargaining to politics, we are seeing it clearly. And how do you proceed in the economic field? A proposal is made, he shows himself to the contractor who is stronger because he accepts his own conditions, after which something is granted. It is a way of doing totally different from the political one ».
From left, Zelensky, Trump and Vance in the oval studio of the White House, on 28 February last.
And what role does JD Vance play at this juncture? As you have and at the beginning we saw him use very hard tones under Trump’s pleased gaze with the Ukrainian President Zelensky, or apostrophe the European leaders to accuse them of not being democratic, as if it were a head of state …
«Vance is the ideologist of the ticket. It was chosen carefully, very carefully. Represents the Rust Beltthe industrial region of the Midwest and the north-east which was the heart of American manufacture and which underwent a strong economic decline due to deindustrialization, with the loss of millions of jobs and the impoverishment of the working class. Vance is from Ohio, it comes from those people, it is the classic product of the worker in crisis that votes republican. It represents that land, that humus. And he guaranteed Trump’s victory. While Kamala Harris, who had deployed Tim Walz’s poor man in the ticket, had not understood anything ».
Vance has recently converted to Catholicism. In his autobiography American elegia It attributes to religion a fundamental importance.
«The American religious communities – from episcopal to presbyterians, from methodists to Battisti – play a strong role in the elections. Incidentally, being survived the attack of Butler, Pennsylvania, last July, was fundamental for Trump in confirming the consent of the American religious right. The president is considered the “second imperfect vessel”, after Ciro the Great, in 539 before Christ, so defined because he had allowed Jews to return to the promised land and reconstruct the temple. Despite being a sinner, it was the ‘imperfect vessel’, the means through which God made his will, who had sent to fulfill his desires ».
And Trump would be the second vessel …
“Trump for the evangelical churches and the other communities is a sinner, undoubtedly, from every point of view is a sinner, but who, for example, already having appointed the three judges of the Supreme Antiabortist Court during the first term and acting as he acts, or taking into account the ethical issues, is considered the second imperfect vessel that was sent by the Lord. The fact that it survived that way, with a bloody ear miraculously, because it turned around – otherwise she would have died – strengthened this consensus. In Pennsylvania they voted for almost everyone for him. And so also the evangelicals of the rest of the country ».
We talked about Vance Catholicism.
«Vance has converted to Catholicism. The wife, Usha Chilukuri, on the other hand, has maintained the Hindu religion. He is a man of great cultural preparation, everything he did, he did it in a amazing way, above all he came out of the condemnation of the misery of the ‘poor whites’ to which he belongs. During the encounter with Zelensky, while accusing him with rough tones, Trump makes him continue safely. Agrees with what is said. This means that between the two there is an implicit understanding. So the ticket consists of a pragmatic, practical president, and by a man who gives him comfort from the ideal point of view and values. And therefore, if nothing unexpected happens, it will be the next American president ».
