Vance was anti-Trump back in 2016. That said, he seems to have dropped opposition to Trump entirely - I don't know what's in his heart of hearts & all that, of course, but I'm not aware of him disparaging or even distancing himself from Trump in more recent years - and policy-wise he's been fairly solid AFAIK.

Especially on foreign & economic policy, he's been a consistent opponent of funding the Ukraine war (so much so that Ukraine put him on their kill list and he in turn personally got their tranny spokesman fired for advocating violence against people like himself) and a proponent of protectionist trade warfare. He's pro-tariff, pro-border wall & pro-trade war with China, which is a huge improvement over the older-school GOP 'free trade, free movement of workers & offshoring at all costs' business-as-usual. He's also on record opposing escalating shit in the Mideast to a war with Iran, which I'm guessing is the best any modern non-interventionist politician in office can do currently with AIPAC on a hair trigger & sure to bury any candidate who tries to take the next step & oppose funding Israel directly (as evidenced by what they did to Brandon Herrera and are still doing to the non-AOC Squad members). Socially he seems pretty standard for a Midwestern Republican - pro-life, voted against the law codifying fag marriage, is against trooning out children, etc.

At my most optimistic I'm hoping this is a sign that Trump is trying to groom a young successor (another advantage for Vance, he's only 39) who already has some name recognition to steer the GOP's future course: genuine conservative populists and American nationalists who actually want to conserve something other than Lockheed Martin's profit margins, are anti-immigration, anti-world policing, and prioritize domestic manufacturing & improving the livelihoods of Americans first over making the tycoons & Red Chinese richer than ever. At my most pessimistic, I still fear that somewhere very deep down, he may still be a Never-Trump sleeper agent and is waiting for a second attempt on Trump's life in hopes of playing LBJ in red. I guess we'll see soon enough.

One bad thing to come from this is that Vance just won his Senate seat in 2022, and him leaving it now means a replacement will have to be selected by the Governor of Ohio. Said governor is Mike DeWine, who's a RINO, so yeah.