Donald Trump: JD Vance, who once called the former POTUS an 'idiot', reveals what changed his view

Donald Trump is running for President once again, campaigning against Joe Biden - the current President. Trump was the President of the US from 2017 to 2021.

Trump has been touring the country to gain support, and at his most recent campaign in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump survived an assassination, allegedly thanks to a simple move. Despite the attempt on his life, the former President is showing no signs of stopping and has recently stated his pick for vice president: James David Vance, also known as JD Vance.

However, this move has surprised some, as Vance has previously advocated against Trump, mainly during his first presidential campaign back in 2016 and used some choice words.

JD Vance used to be a ‘Never Trump’ guy

As per The Washington Post, JD Vance has previously called former President Donald Trump a ‘cynical a**hole’ and ‘America’s Hitler’. In February of 2016, Vance sent messages to his former law school roommate, Josh McLaurin about his views on Trump.

McLaurin has shared screenshots of the conversations back in 2022, where Vance can’t decide if Trump is more like President Nixon or Hitler:

I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.

Moreover, as per Reuters, Trump’s new running mate, which Trump had said he'd made up his mind months ago, had called the former POTUS an ‘idiot’ and thought he was ‘reprehensible’. In an interview with Atlantic Magazine in July 2016, Vance compared Trump to ‘cultural heroin’ and a ‘new pain reliever’ as he had promised simple solutions to complex problems, but in the end, he ‘could not fix what ails them’.

To every complex problem, he promises a simple solution. [...] 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.

Finally, a few weeks before Trump was elected as the new President, Vance had explained in an interview that he was a ‘Never Trump’ guy and that he ‘never liked him’, as per The Washington Post.

Nonetheless, despite his past feelings about Donald Trump, JD Vance has now changed his mind.

JD Vance has changed his mind about Donald Trump

On Monday, July 15, JD Vance admitted to Fox News that he was ‘sceptical’ of Trump 8 years ago, but has since changed his mind as Trump was a ‘great president’, as reported by USA Today.

Vance told Fox's Sean Hannity:

I don't hide from that. I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind. I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans.

As per Reuters, Vance had stated that there was no sudden moment he changed his views on Trump and it was more gradual. In an interview in June, he explained that he hadn’t focused on what Trump was offering on foreign policy and other elements.

I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration.

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Sources used:

Reuters: ‘J.D. Vance once compared Trump to Hitler. Now they are running mates’

USA Today: ‘In first interview as VP candidate, JD Vance explains why he called Trump 'America's Hitler'

The Washington Post: ‘The not-so-kind things J.D. Vance said about Trump before he was VP pick’

The Atlantic: ‘Opioid of the Masses’