All the Negative Comments J.D. Vance Made About Trump Before Joining His Ticket | Vanity Fair

By now you’ve likely heard the news that Ohio senator J.D. Vance is officially Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate. Given that Vance’s name had long been on the short list of candidates Trump was considering for the job, the news should not come as much of a surprise. But there’s one person to whom it will definitely, absolutely be a shock: the J.D. Vance of just a few years back, who had an incredible number of horrible things to say about Trump, and literally branded himself a Never Trumper.

Yes, before he chose to bury his principles in a shallow grave, Vance saw Trump for what he was: a dangerous individual with no business running the country. Now, the senator says things like, “What an honor it is to run alongside President Donald J. Trump,” and, when asked about his extremely negative comments regarding his new boss, claims the media tricked him:

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But back then? He thought Trump was just about one of the worst people in history. So, for the record, here’s what Vance had to say about Trump before he started singing an extremely different tune.

In 2016, Vance sent a message to his law school roommate in which he wrote that he went “back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole…or that he’s America’s Hitler,” according to a screenshot shared by the former roommate in 2022.

In February 2016, Vance liked a tweet featuring a photo of Trump and O.J. Simpson that read, “Here is an old picture of one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs. Also in picture: OJ Simpson.”

In an April 2016 op-ed for The New York Times, Vance wrote: “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

During a 2016 interview, Kentucky radio host Matt Jones told Vance: “I cannot stand Trump because I think he’s a fraud…I think he’s a total fraud that is exploiting these people.” Vance responded: “I do too…I don’t think he actually cares about folks.”

Speaking to NPR’s Terry Gross in August 2016, Vance said: “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.”

“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy. I never liked him,” Vance told Charlie Rose in October 2016.

That same month, Vance wrote on Twitter: “Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us.”

“My God what an idiot,” Vance wrote on Twitter, also in 2016, in reference to Trump.

In 2017, Vance sent a message to a friend from law school discussing his opposition to the American Health Care Act, the legislation Republicans want to replace Obamacare. Discussing a possible future career as a senator, Vance wrote: “Can you imagine running as an anti-AHCA populist who thinks Trump is a moral disaster. Where’s my constituency?”

After the Access Hollywood tape came out, Vance liked a tweet that read, “Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault.” (Trump famously took out full-page ads in four New York City newspapers, calling for the death penalty to be adopted in the state, following the 1989 rape of a jogger in Central Park; he never directly name-checked the group of young men dubbed the Central Park Five, who were later exonerated, but many believe he was quite obviously referring to them.)

Also in 2016, when he was asked about an accusation from Jessica Leeds, who said Trump groped her, Vance replied: “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 the tape?”

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