‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Author J.D. Vance Is Now Pro-Trump, But His Deleted Tweets Tell A Different Story

On Thursday, Hillbilly Elegy author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance entered the crowded field for Ohio’s open Senate seat. “I think we need people in Washington who are fighters — and not just fighters, but smart fighters,” he said during a rally in his home town of Middletown, OH. “There are a lot of fighters in Washington, D.C. They just fight for the wrong things.” Someone who fights for the “right things,” Vance believes, is Donald Trump. He was one of the former-president’s most ardent supporters in the waning months of his presidency and he met with Trump (and fellow finance ghoul Peter Thiel) at his Mar-a-Lago resort ahead of his campaign announcement.

Vance wasn’t always on the Trump Train, however.

On October 9, 2016, Vance tweeted that he found Trump “reprehensible” and that “God wants better of us.” Two days earlier, the day the Access Hollywood tape was released (“And when you’re a star, they let you do it”), Vance wrote, “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us when we apologize for this man. Lord help us.” Those tweets, along with one where the author throws his support behind independent candidate Evan McMullin, have since been deleted, as discovered by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski.

Vance’s criticisms of Trump extended to interviews:

“I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place,” Vance told NPR’s Terry Gross before Trump’s win in 2016. He also told conservative commentator Mona Charen, “If Trump wins it would be terrible for the country, but good for book sales.”

He also called Trump “an idiot,” “reprehensible,” and described his policies as “immoral and absurd,” according to an opinion piece in the Cincinnati Enquirer. The headline: “Don’t buy what J.D. Vance is selling.” (Except for the thing about Trump winning being terrible for the country — that, of course, turned out to be right.)

(Via Insider)