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JD Vance’s evolution from Donald Trump critic to the former president’s running mate is under the spotlight as resurfaced emails reveal that he once privately considered Trump a “demagogue,” a “disaster” and a “morally reprehensible human being.”
Vance sent the emails, obtained by the New York Times, from 2014 to 2017 to his friend and Yale Law School classmate Sofia Nelson. The exchanges capture Vance condemning Trump’s character, policies and rhetoric in no uncertain terms.
In an October 4, 2016, the Ohio Republican called the then-Republican candidate a “disaster.”
Vance wrote: “He’s just a bad man. A morally reprehensible human being.”
That email was sent three days before the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump admitted that he liked to “grab ‘em by the p****.”
In a separate email exchange on December 9, 2015, Nelson and Vance discussed Trump’s take on Muslim citizens after Trump had called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
Vance wrote his friend: “I’m obviously outraged at Trump’s rhetoric, and I worry most of all about how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country. But I also think that people have always believed crazy s*** (I remember a poll from a few years back suggesting that a near majority of democratic voters blamed ‘the Jews’ for the financial crisis).”
He continued: “And there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe crazy s***. What seems different to me is that the Republican Party offers nothing that’s as attractive as the demagogue.”
That same month, Vance discussed Trump’s appeal to voters.
“If you look at the polling, the issue where Trump gets the most support is on the economy,” Vance wrote. “If the response of the media, and the elites of both right and left, are to just say ‘look at those dumb racists supporting Trump,’ then they’re never going to learn the most important lesson of Trump’s candidacy.”
“If he would just tone down the racism, I would literally be his biggest supporter,” he continued.
Also on the issue of race, in 2014 after Michael Brown was killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, the pair discussed the issues with law enforcement.
“I hate the police,” Vance told Nelson. “Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”
Throughout the years, the pair also discussed LGBTQ+ issues. Nelson is transgender, but Vance referred to his former classmate as “lesbian” in his memoir.
“I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if you read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely progressive lesbian.’”
“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry,” he wrote. “I hope you’re not offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”
“If you had written gender queer radical pragmatist, nobody would know what you mean.” Nelson replied, signing off the email: “Love, Sofia.”
After undergoing transition-related surgery, Nelson, now a public defender in Detroit, recounted to the Times that Vance brought over baked goods. Nelson interpreted Vance’s reaction to the procedure as, “‘I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I support you.’ And that meant a lot to me at the time, because I think that was the foundation of our friendship.”
But as the years ticked by, Vance’s views seemed to drastically shift. In 2021, as he ran for the Ohio Senate seat, Vance tweeted in support of an Arkansas bill banning transgender health care for minors.
Nelson pushed Vance on his stance. He replied: “I do. I recognize this is awkward but I’ll always be honest with you. I think the trans thing with kids is so unstudied that it amounts to a form experimentation.”
“It deeply saddens me that you feel that way,” Nelson told Vance. “I know I can’t change your mind, but the political voice you have become seems so so far from the man I got to know in law school.”
Vance’s friends told the outlet they once considered the vice presidential hopeful as a moderate Republican — a far cry from the hard-lined conservative sharing the ticket with Trump.
“He achieved great success and became very rich by being a Never Trumper who explained the white working class to the liberal elite,” Nelson told the Times, referring to his hit memoir. “Now he’s amassing even more power by expressing the exact opposite.”
This isn’t the first documentation of Vance bashing Trump. In texts to his former Yale roommate, Vance called Trump “America’s Hitler.”
A spokesperson for Vance said in a statement: “It’s unfortunate this individual chose to leak decade-old private conversations between friends to the New York Times. Senator Vance values his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. He has been open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very best.”
