How JD Vance Became the GOP’s Favorite Stooge

Trump VP short-lister and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has come a long way since wondering whether Donald Trump was a “cynical asshole” or “America’s Hitler.”

Vance became one of the loudest and most frequent defenders of Trump during the former President’s hush money trial, which ultimately ended with Trump’s conviction on 34 counts related to falsifying business records.

The Senator could be seen all over cable TV defending Trump throughout, accusing the trial judge of being “biased,” the trial of being a “sham,” and President Biden as the boogeyman behind it all.

Vance’s diehard support of Trump pre-trial won him the ex-President’s endorsement for the Senate, as Trump praised the Ohio-native as a “genuine convert,” following the emergence of text messages from Vance to his then-roommate Georgia state Rep. Josh McLaurin in 2016, which read in part, “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.”

By doubling and then tripling down on his willingness to be the GOP’s stooge, Vance has been able to move past the release of the viral texts, in which he also called his party “the party of lower-income, lower-education white people” and lamented that Trump was “fruit of the party’s collective neglect.”

Some have pointed to his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which was turned into a major motion picture by Ron Howard in 2020, as further evidence of Vance’s offensive views on the rural America he grew up in.

But Vance has been able to talk hard and fast enough about Trump being on “the cusp of victory” in the upcoming election and encouraging voters to “speak up” against the “sham prosecution” by choosing Trump in November—so much so that he’s gained the public affection of Don Jr., who regularly posts Vance’s television appearances along with a slew of fireball emojis.

Buoyed by the confidence that only fireball emojis can provide, Vance continues to puff up his chest and vigorously defend Trump and his supporters, who he stated confidently to Wolf Blitzer on Friday were “not violent people,” as he chalked January 6 violence up to a “few” bad apples. After all, he said, “We are the party of law order.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.