Kenneth Glad
Public images are often shaped by brief moments and repeated coverage. A closer relationship can change how a political figure is understood.
After once calling Donald Trump “America’s Hitler,” JD Vance now says that he believes he got the president wrong.
Speaking with Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast, the U.S. vice president said his earlier view was formed before he got to know Trump personally.
Vance said there was a “caveat” to his past criticism because he “didn’t know him well” at the time.
Since then, he said, private access has shown him a different side of Trump than the one he saw through media clips and public clashes.
Judged from a distance
Vance said that the Trump he came to know privately did not match the version he believed he understood from the outside:
“Donald Trump is much different as a human being than the media makes him out to be. He’s very warm. He’s a very loving person to his kids, to his grandkids. He’s incredibly generous.”
Vance said those personal observations changed the way he understood Trump’s character:
“If you see Donald Trump in the Oval Office, it’s like he has to give you a gift. He’s one of these people who really likes hospitality. He really likes making people happy.”
He also defended Trump’s intelligence, calling him “super smart” and saying he reads widely.
Vance furthermore argued that Trump would do well against many former U.S. presidents in an IQ test.
The reversal still follows him
Vance’s explanation stands out because his political identity has changed dramatically since 2016. At that time, his doubts placed him among conservatives who saw Trump as a risk to the party and questioned whether his rise would damage the movement.
His position today is almost the opposite. As vice president, Vance is no longer commenting from the sidelines. He is one of Trump’s most prominent defenders and a central figure in the political project he once viewed with suspicion.
Rather than describing the reversal as a matter of strategy or ambition, Vance frames it as a personal reassessment. His first opinion was shaped from a distance through public disputes, media coverage and brief clips.
He believed he understood Trump from afar, then decided he had misread him after seeing how he acted in private settings and working with him directly.
Source: The Diary of a CEO podcast
