Young populist conservative JD Vance will be the pit bull for Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has toned down his campaign rhetoric after he was nearly killed by a would-be assassin’s bullet.

Trump’s new running mate, a first term senator from the battleground state of Ohio with a rags to riches story, is a Yale Law graduate and Marine veteran and will be a tough foe for Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

Only half of Trump’s age, Vance can say what Trump won’t say on the campaign trail, leaving it to the former president to stick to the high road and try to be a unifying voice in the wake of his near assassination.

Trump has been preaching unity since being shot in the ear but Vance has not, sending out a statement blaming the Biden White House for using rhetoric that led to the shooting.

Vance in fact was a sharp critic of Trump several years ago, but has changed his tune since being adopted by the MAGA crowd after winning his Senate seat two years ago.

No doubt Democrats will pounce on Vance’s flip-flop on Trump, but most running mates have a paper trail of being critical of the nominee. Kamala Harris blasted Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign but is now his VP.

With Vance on the offensive, Trump can be left to talk about his brush with death on Saturday and try to lift up American voters. It’s a smart, strategic move by Trump – despite what Vance’s liberal critics say.

Trump, in an interview with New York Post on his way to Milwaukee, said: “The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle. I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead.”

The Trump campaign sent out a memo to staffers after the shooting saying they “will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric” from campaign surrogates.

“It is our fervent hope that this horrendous act will bring our team, and indeed the nation, together in unity and we must renew our commitment to safety and peace for our country.”

Trump’s VP pick is even more crucial considering his age and the fact he was nearly felled by a rifle shot on Saturday and faces death threats every day. Voters need to know Vance can step in and be president from day one – a difficult ask considering his relative lack of political experience.

But Vance has plenty of life experience outside of politics. Raised in a broken family amid drug use by his mother, Vance overcame his upbringing to go to Yale Law School and later work as a venture capitalist which made him a millionaire. He wrote a bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy” which no doubt will be poured over by Democrats looking for ammunition.

With a beard that Trump has compared to Abraham Lincoln, Vance also has deep Midwest roots which should help him win over working class Rust Belt voters who went to Biden in 2020.

Trump said on social media Monday that Vance “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond…”

Vance’s wife is the daughter of Indian immigrants and a successful lawyer and the two will make a good team on the campaign trail.

Vance already appeared on the convention floor on Monday and is doing the rounds of conservative media. He is scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech Wednesday night.