JD Vance Easily Handles Past Comment Trap On ‘The View’
Vice President J.D. Vance had a direct answer Tuesday when one of the co-hosts of “The View” pressed him about his past criticism of President Donald Trump. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Vance was not yet…
Vice President J.D. Vance had a direct answer Tuesday when one of the co-hosts of “The View” pressed him about his past criticism of President Donald Trump.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Vance was not yet Trump’s running mate or one of his most visible defenders. At the time, he was best known as the author of “Hillbilly Elegy” and as a political commentator, and he was firmly in the Never Trump camp.
That history followed him into the 2024 campaign. PBS and other outlets revisited several of his past comments, including his 2016 remark to NPR that he “can’t stomach Trump.” Vance also wrote in a New York Times op-ed that “Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”
In a private text to a former roommate, Vance said he did not vote for Trump in 2016 and suggested Trump could become “America’s Hitler.”
By 2021, however, Vance had changed his view of Trump. The president later endorsed him in Ohio’s crowded 2022 Republican Senate primary, a major boost in a race that helped launch Vance into national Republican politics.
On Tuesday’s episode of “The View,” co-host Sara Haines brought up another past Vance comment about Trump. Quoting him from 2016, she said, “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching when we apologize for this man. Lord, help us.”
Then she challenged him directly.
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“Help me find the words to explain to my children what they’re witnessing right now,” Haines said.
The question was framed as more than a request for clarification. It carried a clear criticism of Trump and, by extension, the administration Vance now serves in. That kind of criticism is common on “The View,” but it was still a pointed moment to put in front of the sitting vice president.
Vance did not dodge the issue.
“It’s been well-covered that I was a critic of Donald Trump back in 2015 and 2016,” he said. “Now, obviously, I’m sitting here as the vice president of the United States in the Trump administration.”
“Yeah, what happened?” co-host Joy Behar asked.
“Well, Joy, a little humility, actually,” Vance replied. “I think that when you make predictions, and those predictions turn out to be false, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘What made me wrong about that? What did I not understand or not appreciate?’”
Vance then pointed to Trump’s first-term economic record as one reason his view changed.
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“For example, I said that Donald Trump’s economic policies would not lead to wage growth — they did in the first term. That was actually a major, major thing,” he said.
He also said he had been wrong about the future of manufacturing jobs.
“I said that we couldn’t bring back any of those factory jobs, because I’d kind of given in to this idea that those jobs were disappearing, but actually, Donald Trump, you saw manufacturing boom during that administration,” Vance said.
Trump’s first term included a strong economy before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Unemployment dropped to its lowest level in decades, and minority unemployment reached historic lows. CBS News reported that the economy had added a net 350,000 factory jobs by March 2020, before the pandemic disrupted the labor market.
Middle-class real median income also rose during that period, following the passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, cuts to federal regulations, and expanded domestic energy production, according to economist Stephen Moore.
Vance closed his answer by saying political figures should be willing to admit when they were wrong.
“In politics or in anything, I think it’s important to just say, ‘You know what? I got some things wrong, and I was wrong about him,’” he said. “He was a very successful president. It’s one of the reasons why I have been so supportive of him.”
Haines said in January 2025, shortly after Trump returned to office, that none of the show’s co-hosts had voted for him. A Media Research Center study also found that “The View” had only two conservative guests on the program the previous year.
Given that setting, Vance’s appearance was always likely to include some uncomfortable exchanges. Still, he made his case, addressed his past comments, and managed to promote his new book, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” while receiving a generally respectful reception from the panel.