The Republicans who want to be Trump’s VP were once harsh critics with key policy differences
WASHINGTON — It’s hard to call someone “Hitler” and get into their good graces, let alone potentially become the person they choose to help run the country.
But Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s changing attitude toward Donald Trump over the years, from one-time critic of the former president to staunch ally, is a metamorphosis shared by many of Trump’s potential running mates.
It’s not unheard of for a running mate to go beyond past disagreements with a presidential candidate. Joe Biden had a notable exchange with Kamala Harris in 2020 when both were seeking the Democratic nomination. Harris confronted Biden about comments he made in the 1970s about school busing and told him during a debate that she “didn’t believe you’re a racist,” even though he had made “hurtful” comments about being able to work with segregationist senators during his career. Biden chose her as his vice president anyway.
But the shift is more striking for Trump’s potential running mates, in some cases requiring them to abandon long-held policy positions and recant criticism.
Here’s a look at some of those shifts:
In a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose while promoting his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance called himself “a Never Trump guy” and said of the president-elect, “I never liked him.”
He told NPR that year, “I can’t stand Trump. I think he’s harmful and he’s taking the white working class to a very dark place.” He wrote an op-ed for The New York Times titled, “Mr. Trump Is Unfit for Our Nation’s Highest Office.”
Vance said he did not vote for Trump in 2016 and his former roommate shared images of a text message Vance sent him that year in which he called Trump “cynical” and said he could be “America’s Hitler.”
But by the time Vance launched his campaign for Senate in 2021, his views closely aligned with Trump’s. He met with the former president and quickly won his support, giving him a crucial boost in the Republican primaries.
Vance has said he was “wrong” about Trump. In an interview this month on Fox News Channel, he was asked to explain his earlier criticism.
“I didn’t think he would be a good president,” Vance said. “He was a great president. And that’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard to make sure he gets a second term.”
Even as a freshman, Vance stood out in the Senate as one of Trump’s staunchest defenders and a rising voice on foreign policy. Aligning himself with the party’s more populist wing, Vance has fiercely opposed additional aid to Ukraine, even traveling to the Munich Security Conference earlier this year to argue against it.
When Vance’s name rose to the top of Trump’s list of potential running mates, he strikingly took positions that contrasted with those of former Vice President Mike Pence. In an interview with ABC News, he said he would not immediately certify the 2020 election results.
He also said he was “truly skeptical” that Pence’s life was in danger during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and called the bipartisan committee that investigated the attack “a sham.”
Trump in public and private put under pressure Pence would overturn Biden’s 2020 election victory during congressional certification on January 6, 2021, something Pence had no power to do. Trump’s pressure campaign was a motivating factor in the violence attack by the crowd at the Capitol, many chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as they fought their way inside and searched for lawmakers. The House’s Jan. 6 committee found the crowd came within 40 feet of Pence as he was hastily evacuated from the Capitol.
Pence has emphatically refused to support Trump for another term in the White House.
Some of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s harshest comments about Trump came during the 2016 Republican presidential race. Trump began calling him “Little Marco” and mocking him. Rubio responded by insulting Trump’s makeup and the size of his hands.
Rubio also called Trump a “con man” and “the most vulgar person to ever run for president.”
When ABC News played some of Rubio’s comments from 2016 earlier this year, he responded by saying, “It was a campaign.”
He made similar comments in a recent interview with CNN, saying, “That’s like asking a boxer why he punched someone in the face in the third round. It’s because they were boxing.”
Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And now that Trump has campaigned for president for the third time, Rubio has applauded his proposals.
In the Senate, Rubio has long been a prominent voice on immigration and was a key member of a group that worked on a 2013 bill that included a path to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally. Now Rubio says he supports Trump’s plan to use the U.S. military to deport those in the country illegally.
“We’re going to have to do something, unfortunately, we’re going to have to do something dramatic,” Rubio said in an interview with NBC in May.
When shown clips of his 2016 comments in which he said Trump’s plans for mass deportations were not realistic or workable, Rubio said, “the issue has completely changed.”
The senator said the number of people entering the US had increased dramatically, calling it “an invasion of the country.”
Burgum was one of more than a dozen Republicans who ran against Trump in the 2024 primaries, but he withdrew in December and endorsed Trump before the election even started.
Earlier, the governor of North Dakota had rejected the idea of a partnership with Trump.
In an interview last July on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Burgum, a businessman, was asked if he would ever do business with Trump, and replied, “I don’t think so.” He added, “I just think it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep.”
The following month, he told CNN in an interview that he would not serve as Trump’s vice president.
Like many Republicans, Burgum was critical of Trump in 2016, when the “Access Hollywood” video emerged in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by the genitals without their consent. Burgum, then a Republican candidate for governor, issued a statement calling Trump’s comments “offensive, wrong and unacceptable.”
Burgum has become an enthusiastic supporter of Trump this year, using his reputation as a wealthy businessman and governor with knowledge of energy policy to help the Republican Party raise millions in funding, especially from wealthy donors.
When the New York congresswoman was first elected in 2014, she was known as a moderate Republican with ties to the party establishment, having worked in the George W. Bush White House and on the presidential campaigns of Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and later Mitt Romney, and as an aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
In 2016, she initially supported the campaign of Ohio Governor John Kasich. When Trump was the party’s nominee, she did not say his name, saying only that she would “support my party’s nominee in the fall.”
She became a more outspoken supporter as the election approached, but made it clear that she sometimes disagreed with him. She criticized his comments on the “Access Hollywood” tape and disagreed with his stance on NATO, his decision to withdraw from the historic Paris climate accord and his ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim countries, for example.
Those disagreements have faded over the years. Stefanik abruptly emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken defenders during his first impeachment in 2019, and it’s a role she has embraced ever since. When Republicans removed former Rep. Liz Cheney from leadership over her criticism of Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, it was Stefanik who chose to take her place.
In her role as chair of the House Republican caucus, Stefanik has spoken out against Trump’s conviction in New York, defended his policy proposals and echoed his language about January 6, falsely referring to those held for the attack as “hostages.”
Her loyalty to Trump stood out in 2022, when the former president’s approval rating within the party had declined after he took the blame for weaker-than-expected results in the midterm elections. Stefanik announced days after the election that she was endorsing Trump for president in 2024 — an announcement that came before Trump even said he was a candidate.
Earlier this month, when local reporters in her New York district asked her about her past criticism of Trump, Stefanik repeatedly expressed her support for the former president.
“I’m proud to have voted for him and supported him on the ballot in 2016,” Stefanik told WAMC radio in Albany. “I am proud to be his strongest ally in Congress. And I am proud to continue working no matter how the vice presidential situation evolves, I will continue to be a warrior for this district and support President Trump, who has a proven track record of delivering results.”
In 2016, the South Carolina senator initially supported Rubio in the presidential race and that same year he criticized Trump for his unwillingness to condemn the Ku Klux Klan.
“If Donald Trump can’t take a stand against the KKK, we can’t trust him to stand up for America against Putin, Iran or ISIS,” said Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate.
He also criticized Trump for his attacks on a judge’s Mexican heritage in 2016, calling it “racially toxic” and saying comments on “Access Hollywood” were “indefensible” and “disgusting.” He still supported Trump in the 2016 election, calling him “the lesser of two evils.”
Scott also criticized Trump after his ambiguous comments about the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, saying his “moral authority” had been “compromised.”
He met Trump afterward at the White House. In an interview on Fox News Channel on Thursday, Scott said he shared his perspective with the then-president in that meeting and that they worked together from then on to “find solutions.”
“It was the Charlottesville incident that made our relationship what it is today,” Scott said.
Although he ran against Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries, Scott left office and endorsed the former president. He became one of his most enthusiastic supporters.