10
Loading video...
By Martha McHardy
US News Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
JD Vance has been slammed by his former college roommate, who called the Ohio senator's selection as Donald Trump's running mate a "triumph for angry jerks."
Vance was selected as Donald Trump's pick for vice president on Monday ahead of the former president's confirmation as the Republican Party's official nominee for the 2024 election.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Vance has "championed the hardworking men and women of our country." He added that Vance will be focused on the people he "fought so brilliantly for," such as voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota.
Read More on U.S.
Vance, who rose to national prominence after publishing his book Hillbilly Elegy in 2016, has been openly critical of the former president in the past, once describing him as "America's 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," he wrote privately to an associate on Facebook in 2016.
When his Hitler comment was first reported in 2022, a spokesperson did not dispute it, but said it no longer represented Vance's views.
...
Democratic Georgia State Senator Josh McLaurin said in a post on X on Monday that he was the recipient of Vance's "America's Hitler" text.
He added that Vance is a "sellout," describing him as "angry and vindictive."
"I'm the guy JD Vance sent the "America's Hitler" text to in 2016. He was my roommate in law school," he wrote.
"Obviously he's a sellout, but the bigger deal is he's angry and vindictive. The perfect fit for Trump's revenge.
"JD's rise is a triumph for angry jerks everywhere."
Newsweek has contacted representatives of Vance for comment.
Vance, 39, was born into an impoverished home in southern Ohio and attended Yale Law School after serving in the Marine Corps.
He previously wrote in 2016 that he was going to vote for a third party because "I can't stomach Trump." He told NPR: "I think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place."
In the same month as the NPR interview, Vance penned another op-ed, this one for The New York Times, in which he said that "Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation's highest office."
However, in recent years, Vance has U-turned in his views on Trump, becoming one of his most ardent defenders.
He previously downplayed the significance of the January attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters. He has also mirrored Trump as a vocal critic of U.S. aid for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, whom Vance has described as a mentor, told Reuters that Vance shifted his views on Trump because "he saw the successes that President Trump as president brought to the country."
In media interviews, Vance has added that there was no "Eureka" moment that changed his views on Trump. Rather, he gradually realized that his opposition to the former president was rooted in style rather than substance.
"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," Vance told The New York Times in June.
In the same interview, Vance said that he met Trump in 2021 and that the two grew closer during his Senate campaign.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines