Trump Running Mate J.D. Vance Goes From Calling Ex-President ‘America’s Hitler’ To Amerrica’s ‘Saviour’

After former President Donald Trump announced Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his vice presidential running mate at the Republican National Convention, press attention has focued on how the senator’s views have evolved on the former president.

Vance, who has since become a staunch Trump supporter, previously admitted that he was not always a “Trump guy.”

Although the senator has embraced Trump and his MAGA agenda since his 2022 Senate campaign, he has previously shared some harsh criticisms about the former president, especially during the  2016 presidential campaign.

Vance, author of the best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, has previously declared himself a “never Trump guy” who “never liked him,” criticizing Trump as a “terrible candidate” and claiming that only an “idiot” would vote for him.

In a 2016 article for The Atlantic, titled Opioid of the Masses, Vance argued that Trump was not the solution to America’s problems.

“During the election season, it appears that many Americans have reached for a new pain reliever. It enters minds, not through lungs or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump,” wrote Vance.

During an appearance on Charlie Rose‘s PBS show, Vance reiterated this sentiment by describing Trump as “cultural heroin.”

In a 2016 opinion column for USA Today, the senator expanded on his previous criticisms of Trump, calling his “actual policy proposals” as ranging from “immoral to absurd.”

“I find him reprehensible,” Vance tweeted in 2016, criticizing Trump for making immigrants and Muslims feel unwelcome.

In addition, a 2022 report revealed that during his anti-Trump years, Vance privately told a Yale Law School classmate in a Facebook message that he viewed Trump as a “cynical a–hole” and “America’s Hilter.”

Vance was so disillusioned with Trump that he considered voting for a third-party candidate in 2016.

“I think that I’m going to vote third party because I can’t stomach Trump,” Vance told NPR.

“I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place. And ultimately I just don’t share Hillary Clinton’s politics,” he added.

After Trump won the 2016 election, Vance wrote on Twitter, “In 4 years, I hope people remember that it was those of us who empathized with Trump’s voters who fought him most aggressively.”

However, after shifting his stance during his Senate campaign, Vance expressed being “incredibly honored” to receive Trump’s endorsement for the Senate.

He praised Trump as “an incredible fighter for hard-working Americans in the White House,” adding that “he will be again.”

During his brief Senate term, Vance has embraced Trump’s right-wing populist policies, including supporting a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest, endorsing the white supremacist Great Replacement Theory, opposing gay marriage and backing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“I like him,” Vance said about Trump during a recent interview with The New York Times.

“When they say, ‘He’s threatening the foundation of American society,’ I can’t help but roll my eyes,” he added.