J.D.Vance and his ambivalent stance towards Trump and his supporters in the 2024 elections
In newly discovered statements from 2017, J.D.Vance, the current vice president in Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, described some Trump supporters as “racists who voted for him for racist reasons.” These statements came during his speech at the University of Chicago Policy Institute in February 2017, and were first reported by Mother Jones magazine.
“Racism certainly played a role in the 2016 election,” Vance said. “I think racism will always be a part of our lives in America. And certainly some of the people who voted for Trump were racist and voted for him for racist reasons.” At the same time, Vance tried to downplay the role of racism in the 2016 election, asserting that the main driver of people voting for Trump was “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Vance’s statements about Trump and his role in stoking racial tensions were complex. While he acknowledged that some Trump supporters were motivated by racism, he insisted that Trump’s primary message was about economic issues and bringing jobs back to American communities.
Despite criticizing Trump in the past and calling him “America’s Hitler” and a “disaster,” Vance is now one of the leading voices on the right wing of the Republican Party and Trump’s vice presidential nominee in the upcoming election.
Vance also spoke about his personal experience with racism, noting his marriage to an Indian-origin woman and how they were subjected to racist comments online. He blamed the racist rhetoric on the educated, coastal elite rather than ordinary Trump supporters.
Vance is now considered a leading voice in the New Right movement, which argues that liberalism has failed and that authoritarian means are justified to achieve right-wing goals. In 2017, Vance described the right-wing movement as “driven by people…who are in their own way a cognitive elite.”
Vance’s statements, both old and recent, raise questions about his volatile stance toward Trump and his supporters and the impact this will have on the upcoming 2024 presidential election. It remains to be seen how these statements will impact Trump’s campaign and his chances of winning a second term.
