Not a worthy business partner. \u201cUnfit\u201d for the White House. \u201cCon artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are not the words of Democrats attacking Donald Trump, but comments from three Republicans Trump has considered to be his running mate. Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who have been at the center of discussions inside the Trump campaign, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who is also in the mix, have been lavishing Trump with praise in recent weeks as they jockey for position.<\/p>\n
But that was not always the case.<\/p>\n
Previously, they have attacked Trump\u2019s character or policies, and spoken in stark and sometimes personal terms about him. As Trump closes in on an announcement, the finalists reflect a larger shift in the party among scores of ambitious Republicans since 2016. Recognizing Trump\u2019s enduring dominance, many have rallied to his corner, including prominent ex-critics.<\/p>\n
Some observers regard their moves as a cynical ploy to help them climb the political ladder, while others have dismissed them as less meaningful bygones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be very hard to find a leading Republican who had not taken that journey to be honest,\u201d said former congressman David Jolly, a Trump critic who left the GOP. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t allow them to escape some criticism, because it is clear in those moments, and now for his potential VP picks, they are answering to their political compass, not to their political convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has a habit of welcoming former foes who come around to showing fealty to him, and his allies and advisers brushed away the old jabs as typical politicking. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a political opponent turned ally to Trump, shrugged off concerns about potential running mates\u2019 critiques as he argued that Trump should focus on a pick that can help expand the map.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn politics, people go at each other,\u201d Graham said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way politics is sport of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller compared the rebukes to a heated moment between President Biden and Vice President Harris, when they were both vying for the Democratic nomination in 2020. In the second debate, Harris pointed out that Biden had spoken fondly of his relationships with segregationist senators and opposed aspects of mandatory busing to end school desegregation, although she prefaced the attack with the caveat that she wasn\u2019t accusing Biden of racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy comparison, President Trump and any of his prospective VP picks will be much more simpatico,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s allies also highlight that the potential vice-presidential candidates have proved their loyalty, defending Trump on television and the campaign trail, as well as fundraising for him. Some are viewed as potential administration officials even if they are not Trump\u2019s running mate. Yet, their previous comments could be a liability exploited by Democrats who have signaled a strategy to emphasize the prospective running mates\u2019 willingness to defer to Trump\u2019s demands and agenda.<\/p>\n
Vance made some of his most forceful attacks on Trump during media interviews promoting his successful 2016 memoir \u201cHillbilly Elegy.\u201d Vance called himself \u201ca Never Trump guy\u201d and said he didn\u2019t vote for him in 2016. In an August 2016 New York Times op-ed headlined, \u201cWhy Trump\u2019s Antiwar Message Resonates with White America,\u201d Vance wrote, \u201cMr. Trump is unfit for our nation\u2019s highest office.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is definitely an element of Donald Trump\u2019s support that has its basis in racism or xenophobia,\u201d he told PBS\u2019s Judy Woodruff in September 2016, when asked about Hillary Clinton\u2019s comment that as many as half of Trump\u2019s supporters belonged to a \u201cbasket of deplorables.\u201d He added, \u201cBut a lot of these folks are just really hard-working people who are struggling in really important ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance also sent a message that year to his law school roommate, Josh McLaurin, that McLaurin has recounted publicly. In it, Vance said he went \u201cback and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn\u2019t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he\u2019s America\u2019s Hitler,\u201d according to a screenshot McLaurin shared on social media in 2022 when Vance was running for Senate in Ohio.<\/p>\n
McLaurin, now a Democratic Georgia state senator, warned in an interview that Vance might be Trump\u2019s \u201cmost dangerous\u201d pick as someone who would double down on Trump\u2019s vitriol and retribution. He cited Vance\u2019s ability to identify and connect with the anger felt by the MAGA base and how he wielded that skill to get elected and campaign for Trump.<\/p>\n
Compared with Trump\u2019s first-term vice president Mike Pence, who helped certify Biden\u2019s 2020 election win despite Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn the election, he said Vance would probably inflame partisanship and contempt for the other side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an anger he wants to vindicate that he\u2019s carrying around,\u201d McLaurin said.<\/p>\n
Vance has previously said that his prior critical comments about Trump no longer represent his view of Trump, and his Senate campaign at the time dismissed the message to McLaurin as old news.<\/p>\n
Vance won Trump\u2019s endorsement for the Senate in 2022, which proved decisive in his primary, and he befriended Trump\u2019s son, Donald Trump Jr. He said he had come around on Trump\u2019s populist appeals and thought he was an effective president. He has since become a vocal Trump campaign surrogate, appearing with Trump outside the New York courthouse where Trump was convicted of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election; and helped organize a fundraiser with tech entrepreneur David Sacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike a lot of other elite conservatives and elite liberals, I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration,\u201d Vance told the New York Times\u2019s Ross Douthat last month, adding that he voted for Trump in 2020.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump Jr. defended his friend\u2019s previous remarks in a statement, saying articles about Vance\u2019s critiques were already written and it\u2019s \u201cembarrassing that news outlets continue to regurgitate them like they\u2019re breaking news.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrust me, we have all discussed it with him at length and not only are we long past all of this, but we\u2019re 100% confident that JD is America First to the core,\u201d the younger Trump said in the statement. \u201cObjectively speaking, no one in the Senate has been a stronger supporter of my father than he has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similarly, Rubio has become one of Trump\u2019s most vocal supporters in the Senate after leveling personal attacks on Trump in 2016 over Trump\u2019s business dealings, among other things. Before he dropped out of that race and endorsed Trump, Rubio called Trump a \u201ccon artist\u201d who would fracture the GOP.<\/p>\n
At one point, Rubio questioned if Trump, then turning 70 months before the election, was up to the task given his age, a concern that has become more significant for some voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would be the oldest president ever elected. And it\u2019s like an eight-year term, so you start to worry,\u201d Rubio said of Trump in 2016.<\/p>\n
Trump did not hold back with his own criticism of Rubio in 2016, who he frequently called \u201cLittle Marco,\u201d and derided him as \u201ca disaster for Florida\u201d and who \u201ccouldn\u2019t get elected dogcatcher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio later disavowed his disses and fell in line behind Trump in the general election. He helped shape the Trump administration\u2019s Latin America policies and has also been a surrogate for Trump with Latino voters and in Florida.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe became president, we worked together on many things that were important to the country, important to me,\u201d Rubio said in an interview with The Washington Post. \u201cIt was a very good working relationship. I didn\u2019t know him when I ran in 2016, didn\u2019t know him as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the three, Burgum has publicly assailed Trump the least, mostly avoiding speaking about Trump during his brief stint in this cycle\u2019s Republican primary. (He endorsed Trump on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.) However, Burgum, a tech entrepreneur, said last July that he would not do business with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think that it\u2019s important that you\u2019re judged by the company you keep,\u201d he told NBC\u2019s Chuck Todd.<\/p>\n
Asked about that answer, Burgum said in a Fox News interview in May that he did not know Trump personally when he was a governor but that he has become closer to Trump since he has been on the campaign trail for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a chance to see him, meet the real person, understand what he\u2019s like versus how the press portrays him,\u201d Burgum said. \u201cI\u2019m telling you, I\u2019ve known CEOs my whole life. There isn\u2019t a CEO in America who works harder than this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Not a worthy business partner. \u201cUnfit\u201d for the White House. \u201cCon artist.\u201d These are not the words of Democrats attacking Donald Trump, but comments from three Republicans Trump has considered to be his running mate. Sens. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who have been at the center of discussions inside the Trump campaign, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}