Since he descended that escalator in 2015, former President Donald Trump has become a singularly powerful force in conservative politics. Despite almost all predictions, he prevailed in the 2016 presidential election and became the leader of a Republican Party that, in many ways, was not ready for him. His unparalleled popularity on the Right means that he has attracted a number of imitators, but no one has been able to recapture the “Trump vibes.”

This presents a problem for the future of the populist wing of the party. Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), is the heir apparent to the MAGA movement but has been unable to reproduce Trump’s lightning in a bottle. For example, at a recent campaign rally, Vance remarked that Democrats “say it’s racist to do anything.” He continued, “I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and one today. I’m sure they’re going to call that racist too.”

The joke was unnatural and only received a few polite laughs from the audience, but it highlighted a bigger problem for Vance: He simply does not have the same abilities as Trump. While the former president can go onstage and keep a crowd engaged for hours, almost no one else in the field of politics has that same flair. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who had been seen as a rising figure in the GOP, faced a similar problem during his presidential campaign because of his awkward mannerisms and relative lack of charisma.

Trump’s unique talent of communicating with Republican voters has allowed him to get away with many more scandals than any other politician in history, bringing into question the extent to which voters actually align themselves with his policies and not just the man. For example, the majority of Republicans do not support increasing tariffs, a key Trump policy. 

Selecting Vance as a running mate was a gamble based on the assumption that Republicans broadly agreed with Trump’s espoused policy positions and wanted someone even more revolutionary than he is. This is probably not the case, and Vance is much more likely to be regarded as George Bush was to Ronald Reagan than Ronald Reagan was to Barry Goldwater.

That is, rather than being seen as someone who is finishing what Trump started, Vance will be perceived as a pale imitation of Trump, in the same way that DeSantis was merely seen as a Trump copycat in the Republican presidential primary.

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Trump is an already historic figure whose triumphs include being the first billionaire president, defeating a sitting president of the United States so thoroughly in a debate that he is forced to drop out, and surviving getting shot. This is not normal politics, but anyone else who tries to reject normalcy in the way Trump has just ends up being weird.

Only Trump can be Trump, and that is probably a good thing. At the risk of sounding cliche, just being yourself is much better than trying to be someone you are not. Vance needs to be Vance, not a poor emulation of someone else.