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JD Vance on Trump

Posted on: 2024-07-19

JD Vance has had some pretty strong things to say about Trump. Now he's Trumps vice president pick. So let's wander down memory lane and ponder how he's onboard with (his words) "Americas Hitler". I'm assuming at the time he wasn't using it as a complement. Maybe now he thinks it is. Who knows?

Vance is unusual in Trumps orbit, because Trump typically requires nothing less than complete debased simpering fealty. If he doesn't get that well the person and their surrounding family are going to be on the receiving end of childish insults, and cast as "the enemy". In Pences case there is a direct line to the gallows. It's not clear quite why Vance gets a pass but it's probably related to his silicon valley cartoon doomsday villain mentor Peter Theil. Vance is Theils obedient puppy proxy. In the end it was probably Theil's motley crew of tech billionaires money that's sealed the deal.

Theil famously said "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible". It does make sense in so far as Trump is fully onboard with throwing out democracy, as long as he's the dictator. How that for "freedom"?

Vance is also unusual in that most people first work with Trump and then later talk about how he's a "fucking moron", "a threat to democracy" or John Kellys "[Trump is] a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators” and “has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.”.

Vance seems to have had a pretty good handle in the past on what Trump is all about. If he was so profoundly wrong then (he wasn't), why should anyone believe he's right now (he isn't)? Which all assumes he has "changed his mind", when the more likely explanation is he's a cynical and shameless opportunist. So probably not someone you want anywhere near the levers of power.

"Americas Hitler"

In the message, Vance wrote that Republicans had neglected "lower-income, lower-education white people," leaving an opening for a "demagogue" like Trump. "I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical a--hole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler," Vance wrote.

The Week

"My god, what an idiot."

Also included in the ads from Club for Growth Action and USA Freedom Fund were some of Vance’s since-deleted tweets criticizing the former president.

“My god what an idiot,” Vance wrote in one of the tweets. It was one of many tweets now deleted.

MSN

"I'm a Never Trump guy."

“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy,” Vance said in an interview with Charlie Rose in 2016, while publicizing his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” “I never liked him.”

“As somebody who doesn't like Trump, myself, I sort of — I understand where Trump's voters come from,” Vance later said in the Rose interview. “But I also don't like Trump himself, and that made me realize that maybe I'm not quite part of either world totally.”

MSN

"Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation's highest office."

“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office,” he wrote in the op-ed, describing his own families’ adoration and commitment to Trump.

MSN

"I don’t think he actually cares about folks."

“I cannot stand Trump because I think he’s a fraud. Well, I think he’s a total fraud that is exploiting these people,” Kentucky radio host Matt Jones said to Vance in August 2016.

“I do too,” Vance replied. “I agree with you on Trump, because I don’t think that he’s the person. I don’t think he actually cares about folks."

CNN

"Opioid of the Masses"

In a 2016 article in The Atlantic, “Opioid of the Masses,” Mr. Vance wrote: “During this election season, it appears that many Americans have reached for a new pain reliever.” He went on: “It enters minds, not through lungs or veins, but through eyes and ears, and its name is Donald Trump.” But, he argued, Mr. Trump was not the solution.

New York Times

“I find him reprehensible,” Mr. Vance wrote in 2016 on Twitter, saying that Mr. Trump made immigrants and Muslims in the United States afraid.

“In 4 years, I hope people remember that it was those of us who empathized with Trump’s voters who fought him most aggressively,” he wrote in another Twitter post from 2017 after Mr. Trump won.

"Lord help us."

Vance began to publicly change course when he launched his Senate campaign in 2021. He deleted tweets from 2016 that included him calling Trump “reprehensible” and an “idiot.” In another deleted tweet following the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape on which Trump said fame enabled him to grope women, Vance wrote: “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.”

PBS

"Trump has just so thoroughly failed"

“Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy),” Vance wrote in February 2020.

Washington Post

"They voted for him for racist reasons"

“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 in a September 2016 “PBS NewsHour” Interview.

“Definitely some people who voted for Trump were racist and they voted for him for racist reasons,” Vance said in an interview at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

CNN

"I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine"

“I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” Vance said

Motherjones

"Leading the white working class to a very dark place"

As Trump continued to campaign, Vance amped up the messaging, warning on NPR that Trump was “leading the white working class to a very dark place," with campaign promises that ranged from "immoral to absurd" (as he wrote in USA Today).

People

"No Moral Equivalence"

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.

Global News

Sexual Assault

Vance also suggested in 2016 he was inclined to believe a woman who accused Trump of sexual assault, saying on “Hardball with Chris Matthews”: “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?

Forbes

"Massive Finger Pointer"

In another 2016 interview about his book, Vance told a reporter that, although his background would have made him a natural Trump supporter, “the reason, ultimately, that I am not … is because I think that (Trump) is the most-raw expression of a massive finger pointed at other people.”

PBS

"Skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016"

"I was certainly skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016, but President Trump was a great president, and he changed my mind," the freshman senator said. "I think he changed the minds of a lot of Americans because, again, he delivered that peace and prosperity."

Yahoo

So let's see how this stands up...

[Skepticism] is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma.

wiki

A good interviewer would ask him to explain. They should not stop at "I changed my mind" or "skepticism". They should ask for specifically what happened to change his mind.