A Conversation With JD Vance

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From the moment JD Vance came onto the national stage, he was inextricably linked to Donald Trump. As the author of the best-selling book “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance was initially the Trump whisperer, explaining the Trump phenomenon and 2016 win to shocked liberals. Back then, Vance didn’t like Trump. He called him an “idiot,” condemned what he saw as Trump’s dangerous rhetoric and wondered in a private message whether Trump could become “America’s Hitler.”

Then Vance went through a political conversion, transforming from skeptical Trump explainer to full-throated Trump supporter. In 2021, he began his campaign for Senate in Ohio. He courted, and received, Trump’s endorsement and won that race. Two years later, here we are: Vance is not only Trump’s vice-presidential running mate but also considered by many to be the heir apparent to MAGA because of his deft defense of Trumpism.

Listen to the Conversation With JD Vance

The Republican vice-presidential candidate rejects the idea that he’s changed, defends his rhetoric and still won’t say if Trump lost in 2020.

Vance has always been comfortable in the public eye, starting with his job dealing with the media as a public-affairs officer in the Marines. As an author, commentator and candidate, he has left a long record — in blog posts, opinion columns and podcast appearances — of his evolving views, not just on Trump but also on issues like immigration and his vision for the country. In a 2021 podcast, for example, he said that Trump, if elected again, should “seize the institutions of the left,” “fire every single midlevel bureaucrat” in the U.S. government, “replace them with our people” and defy the Supreme Court if it tried to stop him.

That is what Vance sounds like when he’s talking to his base. But a very different Vance appeared recently on the debate stage, where, when speaking to a national audience, he was much less divisive and much more willing to engage in a civil discussion with a political opponent — in this case, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic nominee for vice president.

With the election a few weeks away, and the race so tight, Vance may very well be the next vice president of the United States, and the second in command to someone who could be the oldest-ever commander in chief. So, which Vance can Americans expect if he’s elected? I asked him.