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Policy
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September 27, 2024
Back in 2020, the Republican vice presidential nominee argued that Trump had “completely failed to deliver on his economic populism.”
JD Vance speaks to the crowd at the Berks County Fairgrounds on September 21, 2024 in Leesport, Pennsylvania.
(Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
When Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance take the stage Tuesday’s vice presidential debateVance can be counted on to praise his running mate, former President Donald Trump.
That’s what vice presidential candidates do.
Unfortunately for Trump — and Vance — the Ohio senator’s praise of the former president will ring hollow.
On the economic issues the two Republicans say he values, the GOP vice presidential nominee is on record giving his boss an “F” grade.
“Trump has so failed to deliver on his economic populism (except for the disintegrating China policy)” Written by Vance in a direct message to an acquaintance in February 2020, when then-President Trump was serving his term in the White House.
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Trump was elected in 2016 on a promise to turn the American economy around in favor of working families. But his presidency has been the opposite of what he promised as a candidate. Instead, Trump turned his energies toward catering to the billionaire class. He supported massive tax cuts for the wealthy, filled leadership positions with corporate insiders and Wall Street goons, refused to support efforts to organize workers, and neglected efforts to keep factories open in struggling communities. Shawn Fain as president of the United Auto Workers he says“The bottom line is that Donald Trump doesn’t care about working class people, and he showed that when he was president.”
Republicans have tried to push back such criticism. But now the cache of Vance’s previously unreported direct messages – which is the recipient of the messages turned around that The Washington Post— reveals that Democrats, union leaders and economists weren’t alone in bashing Trump’s record.
Vance, a millionaire venture capitalist who wrote a cynical book about his Appalachian roots, has, like Trump, long tried to present himself as a champion of the American working class. Once a harsh critic of Trump, suggesting the billionaire real estate developer was a “reprehensible” human being who might be “America’s Hitler,” Vance changed his tune as he began a career in Republican politics.
The suddenly emboldened Republican claimed to have changed his stance after being impressed by Trump’s presidency. “I was very open about saying those critical things and I regret them and I’m sorry I was wrong about the guy.” Vance indicated in 2021as he ran for the US Senate seat in Ohio, which he eventually won in 2022 with Trump’s support. “I think he was a good president, I think he made a lot of good decisions for the people, and I think he made a lot of bad ones.”
We now learn that in private, Vance has remained a critic of Trump almost throughout his presidency.
The Trump-Vance campaign now claims that the vice presidential nominee’s contradictory statements are being misinterpreted. But it’s hard to misunderstand the Ohio senator in his blunt statement that Trump has “totally failed to deliver on his economic populism.”
The truth, as revealed by his own words, is that Vance was nowhere near as impressed with Trump’s economic performance as he claimed to be in trying to curry favor with the former president — an effort that would eventually be rewarded with a spot on The 2024 ticket of the Republican Party. Indeed, the direct messages that the Comment The records obtained show that Vance apparently declined the opportunity to join the Trump administration.
“I have already declined my appointment as emperor,” wrote Vance, who referred to the former president as “Emperor Trump.”
Now, of course, Vance claims that Trump was a great emperor, er, president.
And of course Vance is lying.
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In the next election, the fate of our democracy and our basic civil rights will be on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 seek to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision at all levels of government should he win.
We have seen events that fill us with fear and cautious optimism—all the while, The Nation he was a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled viewpoints. Our dedicated writers interview Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, unpack JD Vance’s shallow right-wing populist appeals, and discuss the path to Democratic victory in November.
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