JD Vance once called Donald Trump 'America's Hitler.' Now he's Trump's VP pick
During the 2016 presidential election, JD Vance toured the national media circuit to promote his memoir and explain why he detested then-candidate Donald Trump.
In one NPR interview, he joked that he would rather write in his dog on the ballot than vote for Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"I think that I'm going to vote third party because I can't stomach Trump," the "Hillbilly Elegy" author said at the time. "I think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place."
A lot has changed in eight years. Trump announced Monday that Vance, now a U.S. senator from Ohio, will be his vice-presidential running mate as he seeks his return to the White House in November. The nod is a culmination of Vance's rapid ascent within Trump world that began when the former president endorsed him for U.S. Senate in 2022.
Now, the Ohio senator is one of Trump's top allies ? and his past comments are no secret to the former president or those around him. In a recent New York Times interview, Vance said he got caught up in the "stylistic element of Trump" and ignored the former president's take on issues like trade and foreign policy.
Who is JD Vance? Vice presidential candidate has multiple ties to Columbus
But his checkered history could get new life in a presidential campaign.
"I think what he said about Trump was so clear cut," former Ohio Democratic Party chairman David Pepper said. "That could be used very effectively, that his own vice president very shortly ago was saying what he said. He diagnosed a lot of the biggest problems with Trump when he didn’t like Trump."
What did Vance say about Trump?
The receipts for Vance's criticism of Trump are well-documented.
Vance openly aired his thoughts during interviews about his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," which pundits used to rationalize Trump's popularity among white, rural voters. Vance's critics also unearthed his private comments during the 2022 primary, including messages where he suggested Trump could be "America's Hitler."
In a 2016 column for The Atlantic, Vance compared Trump to an opioid and said his "promises are the needle in America's collective vein." Speaking to Slate, he argued that Trump was "tapping into some racially ugly attitudes" and "leading the white working class to a very dark place." He also criticized the former president's policy proposals, saying they ranged "from immoral to absurd."
During a 2016 MSNBC panel about sexual assault allegations against Trump, Vance said: "At a fundamental level, this is sort of he said/she said, right? And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth ? just kidding ? or do you believe that woman on that tape?"
Throughout the 2016 campaign ? and for a period of time afterward ? Vance expounded on Trump's appeal and said he even understood it at times. A 2017 Vox headline referred to him as "the reluctant interpreter of Trumpism." But he ultimately didn't warm up to the former president for several more years, an evolution that coincided with his first bid for political office.
"As a Marine Corps veteran who grew up in a struggling Rust Belt town, I understand why many adore him ? why I, if only briefly, cheered him on," Vance wrote in 2016. "He tells America’s rich and powerful precisely what we wish we could tell them ourselves: that many of the things they view as accomplishments suck for people like us."
Does Vance's past Trump criticism matter in 2024?
Pepper said Democrats could use Vance's "Machiavellian" change of heart on Trump to discredit him and the former president. He also believes Vance's other vulnerabilities could come back to haunt him.
But the senator's allies, including Donald Trump Jr., contend he's proven himself. And Vance isn't alone: Other prominent Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, were similarly critical of Trump in the past.
"Given all the stories already written on this topic, it's embarrassing that news outlets continue to regurgitate them like they're breaking news," Trump Jr. said in a statement. "Trust me, we have all discussed it with him at length and not only are we long past all of this, but we're 100% confident that JD is America First to the core."
It also may not matter much to Republican voters. For both the former president and his supporters, where a politician stands today is more important than past indiscretions, University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven said.
"In the old days, transitioning from withering criticism to fawning deference violated the physics of politics," Niven said in an email. "But this is just another way Trump has transformed our politics. The list of Republicans who have developed amnesia about their initial Trump assessment is long."
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Trump running mate JD Vance once called Donald Trump 'America's Hitler'
