JD Vance's trans ex-friend is confused by his 'hateful' words and sudden pro-Trump beliefs

JD Vance has a long and storied history of anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs, but his former classmates at Yale University say it wasn't always this way.

Donald Trump's official running mate for the November presidential election didn't previously hold such extreme views — in fact, he used to belong to the "Never Trump" crowd comprised of Republicans with slightly-less conservative social beliefs. This was reflected in his and his wife's support of Sofia Nelson, a former classmate who happens to be transgender.

Nelson recently revealed to The New York Times that they had been friends with Vance while they each attended Yale, and that the ladder had even been supportive of their transition. Nelson recalled a time shortly after they had undergone top surgery in which Vance brought them home-baked treats as a recovery gift.

However, as the years passed and their friend group entered their professions, Nelson noted a stark shift in Vance's beliefs. Their friendship ended in 2021 when the politician voiced support for a bill in Arkansas banning gender-affirming care for minors.

“It hurt my feelings when he started saying hateful things about trans people,” Nelson told the Times.

Nelson isn't the only former friend startled by Vance's seeming change of heart — another classmate, Josh McLaurin, told the paper that he and Vance drifted apart after graduating in 2013 due to Vance's "cynical" comments about "Yale elites." Still, Vance was not so far-right even as Trump first gained prominence in 2016, as McLaurin shared a Facebook message from the now-vice president candidate at the time.

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Vance wrote.

McLaurin, a Democratic state senator in Georgia, proposed his own theory for Vance's shift, saying: “He realized that the only way that he could realize and give effect to his own anger in politics was to identify with the MAGA movement."