Donald Trump has a new running mate in the race to become America’s next president: a man who has previously criticized his leadership, calling him “unfit for office” and even describing him as “reprehensible.”
On Monday, Trump announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance is his vice president pick.
Vance, 39, won his Senate seat in 2022 with Trump’s backing. If elected, he would be one of the youngest vice presidents in United States history.
The Republican was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio. He joined the Marines and served in Iraq before earning degrees from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He later worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.
Vance also made a name for himself with his memoir, the 2016 bestseller Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, which was published as Trump was first running for president.
Before becoming a Trump ally, Vance sharply criticized the former president in a series of interviews, op-eds, and now-deleted tweets.
But Vance started changing his tune, and in an interview with CNN in 2021, said he regrets his criticism of Trump.
“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016,” Vance told CNN in 2021. “I regret being wrong about the guy.”
Here is a look at some of Vance’s past critical comments about Trump.
‘I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy’
In a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose, Vance remarked that Trump shifted the focus of the white working class from engaged and constructive politics to politics centred around “pointing the finger.”
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy. I never liked him,” he told Rose when discussing the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
He then went on to tell Rose that he does not like Trump.
“I realize that the media asked me to be this spokesperson for the white working class. But as somebody who doesn’t like Trump, myself, I sort of… I understand where Trump’s voters come from, But I also don’t like Trump himself, and that made me realize that maybe I’m not quite part of either world totally.”
JD Vance, U.S. Republican Senate candidate for Ohio, speaks during a ‘Save America’ rally with former U.S. President Donald Trump in Delaware, Ohio, U.S., on Saturday, April 23, 2022.
Eli Hiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images
‘Donald Trump who always tells the truth (just kidding)’
In an appearance on Hardball in October 2016, Vance talked about Jessica Leads, a woman who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her on a flight in the late 1970s. Trump denied the allegations.
Vance implied to former host Chris Matthews that she was telling the truth about the assault.
“It makes you think that at the fundamental level, this is sort of a ‘he said, she said.’ And the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth (just kidding), or do you believe that woman on the tape?”
‘I don’t think he actually cares about folks’
In 2016, Vance had an interview on a podcast called The Matt Jones Podcast, in which the host said, “I cannot stand Trump because I think he is a total fraud who is exploiting these people.”
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Vance agreed saying, “I do too.”
“I agree with you on Trump because I don’t think he’s the person, I don’t think he actually cares about folks.”
In an August 2016 interview with NPR, Vance said that a lot of people in his family were going to vote for Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“My dad is a Trump supporter, and I love my dad, and I always say, ‘Dad, you know, Trump is not going to actually make any of these problems better,’” Vance said.
“But I think that I’m going to vote third party because I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place,” he added.
Vance wrote an opinion article in the Atlantic in 2016, in which he used the addiction and the opioid crisis in America as a metaphor for Trump’s leadership.
In the piece, he wrote, “To many, Donald Trump feels good, but he can’t fix America’s growing social and cultural crisis, and the eventual comedown will be harsh.”
He then compared Trump supporters to addiction.
“During this election season, it appears that many Americans have reached for a new pain reliever. It too, promises a quick escape from life’s cares, an easy solution to the mounting social problems of U.S. communities and culture. It demands nothing and requires little more than a modest presence and maybe a few enablers. It enters minds, not through lungs or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump,” he stated.
“Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it,” Vance wrote.
Vance then went on to write that Trump what Trump offers is “an easy escape from the pain.”
“He can cure the addiction epidemic by building a Mexican wall and keeping the cartels out. He will spare the United States from humiliation and military defeat with indiscriminate bombing. It doesn’t matter that no credible military leader has endorsed his plan. He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t. Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.”
Criticized Trump’s handling of Charlottesville
In August 2017, Vance took to X (formerly Twitter) and criticized Trump’s response to the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.
“There is no moral equivalence between the anti-racist protestors in Charlottesville and the killer (and his ilk),” Vance posted.
The post came after the former president said he had “no doubt” that members on both sides of violent Charlottesville protests were to blame.
Trump was widely criticized for his comments, in which he said there were “many sides” involved in the protest, instead of calling out the neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups.
‘Unfit for our nation’s highest office’
Vance wrote another opinion piece in April 2016 in the New York Times, titled: ‘Why Trump’s Antiwar Message Resonates with White America.’
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office. But to those humiliated by defeat, he promises we’ll win again,” Vance wrote.
CNN investigative reporter Andrew Kaczynski uncovered deleted tweets by Vance, along with a since-deleted post in October 2016 on X where Vance criticized Trump for his immigration stance.
“Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us,” Vance wrote.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – JULY 15: Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) appear on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Getty Images
In another deleted post on Oct. 7, 2016, Vance took to X and stated: “Fellow Christian, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.”
This was the same day that the Washington Post released footage of Trump boasting of groping and kissing women without consent.
“I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it,” Trump told Access Hollywood host Billy Bush in the video about former show producer Nancy O’Dell. “I did try and f— her. She was married.”
‘Trump’s support that has its basis in racism’
In a September 2016 interview with PBS NewsHour, Vance stated that racism and xenophobia contributed to Trump’s rise.
“There is definitely an element of Donald Trump’s support that has its basis in racism, xenophobia, but a lot of these folks are just really hardworking people who are struggling in really important ways,” Vance said.
Why would Trump pick Vance?
Given all the negative comments, why would Trump still choose Vance as his running mate?
Jennifer Lawless, a professor of public policy at the University of Virginia, told Motorcycle accident toronto today, “it’s really interesting that J.D. Vance had said negative things about Donald Trump in the past, because he’s not even distancing himself from the fact that he did it.”
“He’s saying that he’s seen the light and no longer believes these things, that he was skeptical, but Donald Trump showed him the way, and he’s never been so happy that he was wrong.”
She added that Vance is an example of someone Trump successfully persuaded. If Trump can convince his own vice president, he can convince the American people.
“I think it’s strategic… he’s just saying he no longer believes that the concerns he had about Donald Trump in 2015 and 2016 are valid,” Lawless added.
— With files from Motorcycle accident toronto today’ Jackson Proskow and the Associated Press