The political evolution of J.D. Vance

When it comes to Donald Trump, J.D. Vance has made his opinion clear.

Or has he?

The New York Times bestselling author, Ohio senator, and now vice presidential candidate has made plenty of outspoken comments on the former president. But consistency is not strong among them.

Back in 2016, Vance had entered the national spotlight for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy which served as both a biography of his upbringing in America's Rust Belt, and a social commentary on the white working class.

On his press tour, he had a lot of negative things to say about Trump. In conversation with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, he said:

"I can't stomach Trump. I think that he's noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place."

A change.

In public, Vance said that Trump was, "unfit for our nation's highest office."

And in unearthed private messages, he compared Trump to Adolf Hitler.

So how did the J.D. Vance of 2016 become Trump's 2024 running mate?

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The 2020 election might be a good place to start. In one interview following President Biden's victory, Vance said:

"Was the election free and fair, was it above board? My answer is no. I don't think that it was."

Vance's rhetoric regarding the many criminal cases facing former president Trump has also fallen neatly in line with the rest of his far right pocket of the GOP.

In one interview, Vance said: "This is not about prosecuting Trump for something that he did. It's about throwing him off the ballot because Democrats feel they can't beat him at the ballot box, so they're trying to beat him in court."

Defined by ambition?

David Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic and knew Vance early on in his political career, which he wrote in a 2022 article.

"Back then, he was in a movement shared by many of us who were looking for a way forward to a more moderate and modern conservatism after the financial crisis and after the Iraq war," Frum described.

He feels like it's a stark contrast to the politican Vance has actually become.

"I think conscious hypocrisy is a very rare behavior in human beings," Frum told All Things Considered on Tuesday.

"I don't think the human mind is organized to consistently say one thing and believe another... So I'm not suggesting that J.D. Vance doesn't believe what he says today. I'm just saying that doesn't necessarily have much connection with what he said yesterday, and it's not a sure predictor of what he will say tomorrow."

Frum disagrees with the Biden campaigns characterization of Vance as a "Trump clone."

"I don't think if I were Donald Trump, I would count on that. J.D. Vance will be a Trump loyalist as long as Trump is powerful. If Trump falters, the loyalty may vanish very rapidly."

Frum says that many politicians are defined by their ambition, but finds it more telling to focus more on where their limitations lie, where the line they won't cross for their career is. When it comes to Vance?

"I think he walked across it. I think he told us in advance what it was. It was Donald Trump and he walked across it."