JD Vance was privately criticizing Donald Trump’s performance as president just four years ago, according to a report.
Direct messages sent by the current Republican vice presidential nominee to an unnamed acquaintance on Twitter, now known as X, show him condemning his future running mate’s record in office, according to The Washington Post. “Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy),” Vance reportedly wrote in one February 2020 message.
In another message sent in June of Trump’s last year in the White House, Vance predicted that Joe Biden would win the 2020 election.
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“I think Trump will probably lose,” Vance wrote at the time, referring to the election that he would later baselessly claim had been stolen by Democrats.
Vance has previously pointed to Trump’s achievements as president in explaining how he went from being a vocal critic of Trump in 2016 to a supporter by 2020; Vance notoriously went from likening Trump to heroin and Hitler eight years ago to now describing him as the “the best president” he’s seen in his lifetime. His newly leaked messages suggest he was still highly critical of Trump long after making his more infamous, public attacks.
In the message in which he predicted Trump would lose the 2020 election, Vance also reportedly indicated that he’d been offered—and rejected—some kind of job. “I’ve already turned down my appointment from the emperor,” Vance wrote with a winking emoji, according to the Post, after the person he was messaging spoke about the possibility of a government position offered by “Emperor Trump.”
Asked by his interlocutor what job was being dangled, Vance replied: “I’m not going to say over twitter messenger.”
William Martin, a spokesman for Vance, told the Post that Vance’s comment about Trump failing to deliver on his economic agenda was not aimed at the former president but rather “establishment Republicans who thwarted much of Trump’s populist economic agenda to increase tariffs and boost domestic manufacturing in Congress.”
“Fortunately, Sen. Vance believes that Republicans in Congress are much more aligned with President Trump’s agenda today than they were back then, so he is confident that they won’t run into those same issues within the party,” Martin added.
Vance’s campaign reportedly didn’t answer questions about the prediction that Trump would lose to Biden in 2020 or the apparent job offer.
