A few months later, when the infamous Trump Access Hollywood tape came out, Vance warned, “Fellow Christians, everyone is watching us. When we apologize for this man, lord help us.” Throughout 2016 and 2017, Vance liked tweets critical of Trump, including that he committed “serial sexual assault” and was “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs.” In a set of since deleted tweets, Vance also criticized Trump’s response to the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, writing, “There is no moral equivalence between the anti-racist protestors in Charlottesville and the killer (and his ilk).”
But of course, like many other Republicans, the self-described “Never Trump” Republican soon changed his tune on Trump, fully backing Trumpism by the time he began his run for the Senate in 2022 and fomenting right-wing attacks on “wokeness” and “critical race theory.” His time in the Senate has continued along those lines, as he has sponsored culture-war bills like one that would completely gut diversity, equity, and inclusion principles in the federal government and claimed he would have tried to overturn the 2020 election results if he was vice president.
The possibility of Vance becoming Trump’s running mate drew objections from several top Republican donors who were concerned about his lack of experience, both in business and in politics. Other top candidates like North Dakota’s Doug Burgum and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida were seen as safer picks, particularly with Rubio’s foreign policy orthodoxy.
