Too funny! AProudLefty thinks he somehow speaks for Trump and MAGA supporters while being able to see the future and speak for countless minsets that don't yet exist.
My MAGA party has only just gotten started. Join me, the water is great.
J.D. Vance, now Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate and Vice President-elect as of March 7, 2025, was once a vocal critic of Trump before aligning himself with the former president. During and before the 2016 presidential election, Vance made several pointed remarks that reveal a starkly different stance from his current loyalty.
In private messages from 2016, Vance expressed deep skepticism about Trump, writing to a friend, “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.” This blunt comparison surfaced in multiple reports, including from CNN and The New York Times, showing his early disdain. Publicly, he was no less critical. In a July 2016 piece for The Atlantic titled "Opioid of the Masses," Vance called Trump “cultural heroin,” arguing that Trump offered false hope to struggling communities with simplistic solutions that couldn’t address their real problems. He wrote, “Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. But he cannot fix what ails them, and one day they’ll realize it.”
Vance also told Charlie Rose in October 2016, “I’m a Never Trump guy. I never liked him,” positioning himself firmly against Trump’s candidacy. That same year, he tweeted (since deleted) that Trump was “reprehensible” for making “people I care about afraid—immigrants, Muslims, etc.” and declared, “My god what an idiot.” In an NPR interview, he said, “I can’t stomach Trump,” calling him “noxious” and accusing him of leading the white working class “to a very dark place.” He even considered voting for Hillary Clinton if Trump seemed likely to win, though he ultimately voted for independent Evan McMullin.
His criticism continued into Trump’s presidency. In 2017, Vance privately messaged that Trump was a “moral disaster” with “no domestic policy agenda besides tax cuts,” per CNN’s KFile. As late as February 2020, he wrote that Trump had “thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy)” and predicted Trump would lose to Joe Biden, according to messages obtained by The Washington Post.
Vance’s shift began around 2021 when he launched his Senate campaign in Ohio, seeking Trump’s endorsement. He apologized for his past remarks, meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago in February 2021 to express regret for believing “media lies.” By July 2021, he told Fox News, “I regret being wrong about the guy,” citing Trump’s policy successes. This pivot paid off: Trump endorsed him in 2022, helping him win the Senate seat, and later chose him as VP in 2024.
Vance’s earlier criticisms paint him as a principled skeptic of Trump’s character and leadership, a stark contrast to his current role as a MAGA loyalist. Whether this reflects a genuine change of heart or political opportunism remains debated—his detractors call him a “snake” or “hypocrite,” while supporters see a “convert” won over by Trump’s record. The evolution is undeniable, though: from comparing Trump to Hitler to standing as his deputy
@Grok
This is just an example. Expect Trump's people to turn on him after they have enough.
