bundled jquery in theme js not working with wp_localize_script

Question

You can’t use wp_localize_script with jquery. this function use the WP_Scripts::localize() function which have a condition right in the start.

You can see it in the file \wp-includes\class.wp-scripts.php line 414

if ( $handle === 'jquery' )
    $handle="jquery-core";

You can do something else like add the script with other action like wp_head if your script is in the <head> or wp_print_footer_scripts if its in the footer.

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', function () {
    wp_dequeue_script('jquery');
    wp_deregister_script('jquery');
    wp_register_script('jquery', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/build/scripts/app.js');
    wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
});

add_action('wp_head', function() {
    global $wp_query;

    $my_object = array(
        'ajaxurl'      => admin_url('admin-ajax.php'),
        'query_vars'   => json_encode($wp_query->query),
        'is_search'    => is_search(),
        'current_page' => get_query_var('paged') ? get_query_var('paged') : 1,
        'max_page'     => $wp_query->max_num_pages,
    );
    ?>
    <script>
        var ajaxpagination = <?php echo wp_json_encode($my_object); ?>
    </script>
    <?php
}, 0, 1);