Shady Things About JD Vance, Revealed By His Former Classmates & Friends

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JD Vance may now be known as the ultraconservative vice president in the polarizing second cabinet of Donald Trump, but he didn't always hold these views. As a U.S. senator and now second-in-command, he has supported an array of policies that infringe on LGBTQ+ rights and spouted praise for law enforcement amid Trump's controversial decision to send the National Guard to Washington, D.C. However, a former friend attested that this doesn't represent the person they once knew.

While this may be shocking to those previously unfamiliar with him, this isn't all that surprising to those who were. After all, he's married to Usha Vance, a former Hillary Clinton supporter and registered Democrat until 2014. In a situation that mirrors her husband's, Usha has also had her shady side exposed by former friends and classmates. For starters, both Vances were Trump detractors. JD went so far as to claim he might have to vote blue in 2016.

"I think there's a chance, if I feel like Trump has a really good chance of winning, that I might have to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton," he said in an interview with NPR's Terry Gross in August 2016, before he got into politics. Then just the author of the best-selling autobiography "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis," JD wouldn't become a politician until 2022, when he was elected to the Senate. Before then, friends claim that JD was far from the LGBTQ-hating, cop-loving person he personifies today.

Before he became associated with the far-right, JD Vance was a compassionate friend who brought homemade cookies for a transgender friend who had undergone surgery. The friend, Sofia Nelson, had attended Yale Law School with Vance and shared about 90 email and text conversations they exchanged between 2014 and 2017 with The New York Times in 2024. In one, Vance apologized for the way he identified Nelson in his book. "I'm sure if you read it you'll notice reference to 'an extremely progressive lesbian,'" he wrote.

"I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of yourself, and for that I am really sorry. I hope you're not offended, but if you are, I'm sorry! Love you, JD," he continued. Vance also showed sympathy for Michael Brown, the teenager killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, disclosing his dislike of law enforcement. "I hate the police," he wrote to Nelson. "Given the number of negative experiences I've had in the past few years, I can't imagine what a Black guy goes through."

Nelson struggled to accept who her former friend had become. "I don't see any of the man that I got to know and care about. It's really heartbreaking to see him become so callous and divisive," Nelson told CNN. For his part, Vance downplayed Nelson's revelations. Vance argued his political transformation happened after he became a father, something he's been open about. "He has thoroughly explained why he changed his mind on President Trump," his rep said.