VP nominee JD Vance has had harsh words for Donald Trump in the past

COLUMBUS, Ohio — U.S. Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s pick for vice president in 2024, has been one of Trump’s fiercest defenders since the Ohio Republican successfully ran for the Senate in 2022.

But when Trump first ran for president in 2016, Vance made it clear that he was no Trump enthusiast, repeatedly attacking him in op-eds, interviews, and on social media.

Among other things, Vance called himself a “‘Never Trump’ guy” and trashed his now running mate as “cultural heroin,” “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and “unfit for the nation’s highest office.”

Vance has since apologized and expressed regret for making anti-Trump statements. He also has taken down many of his posts on Twitter (now X) criticizing Trump.

His past criticism apparently were not an issue for Trump himself. When Trump traveled to Ohio to endorse Vance in a crowded GOP U.S. Senate primary in 2022, he acknowledged the history, but said “I have to do what I have to do.”

“He’s a guy that said some bad s— about me. He did,” Trump said of Vance at the time. “But you know what? Every one of the others did also. In fact, if I went by that standard, I probably never would have endorsed anyone in the country.”

And, of course, on Monday he gave Vance the ultimate endorsement: Choosing him to run alongside him on the presidential ticket.

Here are some of Vance’s many anti-Trump quotes:

“In 4 years, I hope people remember that it was those of us who empathized with Trump’s voters who fought him most aggressively”

– Twitter, March 31, 2016

“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

– New York Times op-ed, April 4, 2016

“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.”

– Op-ed in The Atlantic, July 4, 2016

“A lot of people think Trump is just the first to appeal to the racism and xenophobia that were already there, but I think he’s making the problem worse.”

– Interview with The American Conservative, July 22, 2016

“I think that I’m going to vote third party because I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.”

– NPR interview, Aug. 17, 2016

“At the heart of Trump’s immigration message is that if we had less immigration, we would have much better jobs. I think it’s a lot more complicated than that. My own sense is that Trump definitely simplifies these problems. I don’t think if you build a great Mexican wall, all of a sudden, all of these steel mill jobs are going to come back to southern Ohio. But it at least gives people something to latch onto.”

– Interview with Yahoo News, Sept. 2, 2016

“Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.”

– Twitter, Oct. 7, 2016, after Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood tape became public

“Trump makes people I care about afraid. Immigrants, Muslims, etc. Because of this I find him reprehensible. God wants better of us”

– Twitter, Oct. 9, 2016

“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy. I never liked him.”

– Interview with Charlie Rose, Oct. 18, 20216

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

– 2016 text message to Josh McLaurin, Vance’s Yale Law School roommate who’s now a Democratic state senator in Georgia

Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.