tRUMP MINI ME VANCE SCANDAL: Texts/Emails Reveal Closet Liebrul JD Vance To Be A Friend To LGBTQ Transsexual Deviants SCANDAL

Used the term "LOVE" in signing off, were they love letters?

JD Vance, an Unlikely Friendship and Why It Ended
His political views differed from a transgender classmate’s, but they 
forged a bond that lasted a decade — until Mr. Vance seemed to pivot, 
politically and personally. 



https://archive.ph/kdYrE#selection-844.0-1699.175
 
By Stephanie Saul
Stephanie Saul, who covers education, reviewed about 90 emails and text 
messages spanning between 2014 and 2017.
July 27, 2024, 5:01 a.m. ET
When his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was published in 2016, JD Vance sent an 
email apologizing to a close friend from his Yale Law School days. The 
friend identified as transgender, but Mr. Vance referred to them in the 
book as a lesbian.
“Hey Sofes, here’s an excerpt from my book,” Mr. Vance wrote to his friend, 
Sofia Nelson. “I send this to you not just to brag, but because I’m sure if 
you read it you’ll notice reference to ‘an extremely progressive lesbian.’”
“I recognize now that this may not accurately reflect how you think of 
yourself, and for that I am really sorry,” he wrote. “I hope you’re not 
offended, but if you are, I’m sorry! Love you, JD.”
Nelson wrote back the same day, calling Mr. Vance “buddy” and thanking him 
for “being sweet,” adding, “If you had written gender queer radical 
pragmatist, nobody would know what you mean.” Nelson asked for an 
autographed copy, then signed off with, “Love, Sofia.”
That exchange is from a series of emails between two friends, part of a 
close-knit group of 16 students who remained together throughout their 
first law school semester in the fall of 2010. As now-Senator Vance seeks 
the vice presidency, Nelson has shared about 90 of their emails and text 
messages, primarily from 2014 through 2017, with The New York Times.
Image
A portrait of Sofia Nelson in a suit and tie outside a courthouse.
Sofia Nelson, a former law school classmate of Mr. Vance, is now a public 
defender in Detroit.Credit...Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times
The emails, in which Mr. Vance criticizes former President Donald J. Trump 
both for “racism” and as a “morally reprehensible human being,” add to an 
already-existing body of evidence showing Mr. Vance’s ideological pivot 
from Never Trumper to Mr. Trump’s running mate.
And they reflect a young man quite different from the hard-right culture 
warrior of today who back then brought homemade baked goods to his friend 
after Nelson underwent transition-related surgery. The visit cemented their 
bond.
“The content of the conversation was,” Nelson said in an interview with The 
New York Times, “‘I don’t understand what you’re doing, but I support 
you.’ And that meant a lot to me at the time, because I think that was the 
foundation of our friendship.”
Image
A screenshot of an email from Mr. Vance to Nelson in 2016.
The political views of the two were sharply divergent, but their friendship 
would continue for a decade, strengthened by their shared Midwestern roots 
— Nelson grew up in Western Michigan and Mr. Vance in Ohio — and cynical 
views of Ivy League elitism.
Nelson, a Tufts University graduate, had received a prestigious Truman 
scholarship for law school, indicating a desire to work in public service.
At times, they exchanged messages infrequently. At other times, they would 
have energetic back-and-forths several times a week. And their talks 
reflected the history playing out around them — protests against police 
violence in Ferguson, Mo., the massacre of Black churchgoers in Charleston, 
S.C., and the 2016 campaign between Mr. Trump and Hillary Clinton. Their 
conversations were notable not only for Mr. Vance’s harsh comments about 
Mr. Trump, but also for the tenderness and thoughtful tone in the messages.
They provide what may be a textbook example of respectful discourse, 
revealing a cultural willingness by Mr. Vance to accept Nelson’s gender 
identity, which sharply differs from the anti-L.G.B.T.Q. sentiments evident 
at the Republican National Convention.
Nelson, now a public defender in Detroit, said they visited each other’s 
homes, talked on Zoom during the pandemic and exchanged long emails 
discussing a range of subjects, from the minutiae of daily life to weighty 
discussions of current events and public policy issues. Nelson attended Mr. 
Vance’s wedding in Kentucky in 2014. They pondered doing a podcast together 
— he suggested they call it “The Lunatic Fringe.”
But Nelson and Mr. Vance had a falling out in 2021, when Mr. Vance said 
publicly he supported an Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors, 
leading to a bitter exchange that deeply hurt Nelson.
“He achieved great success and became very rich by being a Never Trumper 
who explained the white working class to the liberal elite,” Nelson said, 
referring to Mr. Vance’s successful 2016 book. “Now he’s amassing even more 
power by expressing the exact opposite.”
Now, Nelson, who opposes the Trump/Vance ticket, hopes the emails inform 
the opinion of voters about Mr. Vance.
Responding to a request for comment on the emails, Luke Schroeder, a 
spokesman for the Vance campaign, issued a statement:
“It’s unfortunate this individual chose to leak decade-old private 
conversations between friends to The New York Times. Senator Vance values 
his friendships with individuals across the political spectrum. He has been 
open about the fact that some of his views from a decade ago began to 
change after becoming a dad and starting a family, and he has thoroughly 
explained why he changed his mind on President Trump. Despite their 
disagreements, Senator Vance cares for Sofia and wishes Sofia the very 
best.”
Charting His Own Path
In 2014, they were both near the beginning of their careers, about a year 
out of law school.
Mr. Vance shared that he was planning to buy a house in Washington, D.C., 
with his wife, Usha, whom he also met at Yale.
The Vances could afford a house in Washington’s highly priced market partly 
because Mr. Vance was starting a job in Big Law. “Blech,” he wrote then, 
indicating his distaste for a career he had already decided against. He 
would remain with the white-shoe firm Sidley Austin for less than two 
years.
In the same exchange, Mr. Vance also wrote about his wife’s interviews with 
justices of the Supreme Court, where she was seeking a clerkship. Mr. Vance 
worried that her seeming politically neutral, or lack of “ideological 
chops,” could harm her chances.
“Scalia and Kagan moved very quickly,” Mr. Vance wrote, referring to 
Antonin Scalia, the conservative justice who died in 2016, and Elena Kagan, 
one of the court’s current three liberal justices, “but she was just not 
going to work out for Scalia.”
Nelson wrote back, “His homophobic screeds are hard to believe in 2014.”
“He’s become a very shrill old man,” Mr. Vance responded. “I used to really 
like him, and I used to believe all of his stuff about judicial minimalism 
was sincere. Now I see it as a political charade.”
Ms. Vance would end up clerking for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
Image
A Gothis spire at Yale University.
Mr. Vance and Nelson were part of a close-knit group of 16 students who 
remained together throughout their first semester at Yale Law School in the 
fall of 2010.Credit...Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
On Cops, Body Cams and Pride Day
Like their conversations, Mr. Vance could be surprising.
In October 2014, in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown, an 18-year-
old Black man, by a white police officer in Ferguson, Nelson raised the 
idea of requiring that police officers wear body cameras.
“I hate the police,” Mr. Vance said in his response. “Given the number of 
negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a 
Black guy goes through.”
Image
A screenshot of an email from Mr. Vance to Nelson.
Around the same time, the written conversation turned to a much-discussed 
essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic making the case for reparations. 
Mr. Vance offered that whatever problems he had with reparations, 
generally, “I have at least been convinced of the virtue of compensating 
modern victims who’ve suffered redlining or denial of federal benefits.”
By next summer, after a shooting at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in 
Charleston, the two were again discussing race. Mr. Vance said he didn’t 
understand why people “can’t see the connection between this person 
murdering innocent people and the fact that the Confederate flag — by 
democratic will — still flies” at the South Carolina Statehouse. “I’m not 
sure how to wrap my head around it.” (The flag was removed from the 
Statehouse in Columbia a month later.)
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“I think you’re my only liberal friend with whom I talk openly about 
politics on a deeper sense,” Mr. Vance wrote.
In June 2015, Mr. Vance also revealed to Nelson that Jeb Bush’s 
presidential campaign had offered him a job as senior domestic policy 
adviser, then reneged, after discovering a negative piece he had written 
about George W. Bush’s economic policies. (The New York Times reached out 
to several former advisers to Jeb Bush’s campaign, who could not confirm 
that there was a job offer.)
Mr. Vance wrote to Nelson that he was looking forward to getting together 
for a longer conversation with “some bourbon and puppy dogs by my side.”
In 2015, Mr. Vance moved to California for a new career in the tech 
industry, one he launched, he suggested, after the Bush episode.
“It’s possible to view this entire extended foray into the California tech 
scene as a wound-licking exercise after my brief encounter with American 
politics,” he wrote.
Living in the Bay Area at the time, on June 28 that year, he wished Nelson 
“Happy Pride,” adding, “I’m thinking of braving the crowds in S.F. just to 
people watch.”
After attending the Pride Day parade, he wrote, “It felt more like a frat 
party than I expected. But still nice to see a lot of happy people.”
Opposing Trump
By 2015, Mr. Trump’s rise had begun. Mr. Vance’s Yale friends, including 
Nelson, were not surprised that Mr. Vance, whom they regarded as a moderate 
Republican, was opposed to Mr. Trump’s candidacy.
Mr. Vance was rooting against Mr. Trump but also said he could not bring 
himself to vote for Mrs. Clinton. He vowed to cast his ballot for a third-
party candidate.
In December 2015, in emails analyzing the campaign, he wrote that Mr. 
Trump’s appeal was misunderstood.
“If you look at the polling, the issue where Trump gets the most support is 
on the economy,” Mr. Vance wrote. “If the response of the media, and the 
elites of both right and left, are to just say ‘look at those dumb racists 
supporting Trump,’ then they’re never going to learn the most important 
lesson of Trump’s candidacy.”
And he said that he himself saw something in Mr. Trump.
Mr. Vance wrote that he found it exhilarating that the media and Wall 
Street seemed powerless against Mr. Trump, also suggesting that he partly 
understood the Trump appeal.
“If he would just tone down the racism, I would literally be his biggest 
supporter,” he wrote.
Image
A screenshot of an email from JD Vance to Sofia Nelson on Dec. 9, 2015.
The next day, on Dec. 9, 2015, the two would again talk race, Mr. Trump and 
Muslims.
Nelson wrote that a Muslim friend had said that women wearing hijabs no 
longer felt safe doing simple things like going to the grocery store.
Mr. Vance responded, referring to Mr. Trump as a demagogue.
“I’m obviously outraged at Trump’s rhetoric, and I worry most of all about 
how welcome Muslim citizens feel in their own country,” he wrote. “And 
there have always been demagogues willing to exploit the people who believe 
crazy shit. What seems different to me is that the Republican Party offers 
nothing that’s as attractive as the demagogue.”
Image
Mr. Vance, wearing a gray blazer, autographs a book next to a man.
Mr. Vance autographing a copy of his book “Hillbilly Elegy” after a 
campaign event in Ohio in 2022.Credit...Brian Kaiser for The New York Times
By 2016, he was touring the country promoting “Hillbilly Elegy,” part 
memoir and part commentary on the alienation of the white working class, 
many of whom supported Mr. Trump’s election. “To Sofia, a good friend, a 
fellow Midwesterner, and, despite being a Godless liberal, a great person,” 
he would inscribe in Nelson’s copy.
In September 2016, he shared a piece on implicit bias that he wrote for The 
New York Times following Mrs. Clinton’s ill-fated “basket of deplorables” 
comment, thanking Nelson in the email for helping inform his thinking in 
developing the essay.
“The more white people feel like voting for Trump, the more Black people 
will suffer. I really believe that,” he wrote.
Not only had Mr. Vance been critical of Mr. Trump for racism, but he also 
said, “I’ve been very critical of other Repubs for the L.G.B.T.Q. issue, 
especially Rick Perry,” referring to the former Texas governor.
In another email a month later, he called Mr. Trump a “disaster,” using a 
vulgarity, and added, “He’s just a bad man.”
Image
An inscription from Mr. Vance to Nelson in their copy of “Hillbilly Elegy”: 
“To Sofia, a good friend, a fellow Midwesterner, and, despite being a 
Godless liberal, a great person.”
And then, to the amazement of many Americans, Mr. Trump won.
Nelson sent Mr. Vance a copy of an article in The Onion, a satirical news 
site, that suggested liberals were clueless about the country they lived 
in.
“This is funny. Thank you!” Mr. Vance wrote back.
“My zany prediction: in 20 years H.R.C. and Paul Ryan will be part of the 
same party,” he continued, using an abbreviation for Mrs. Clinton. “And you 
and I will be on the other side.”
In January 2017, he expressed more sober concern.
“I’m deeply pessimistic right now,” he wrote. “I’ve been thinking a lot 
about the civil rights movement and legislation in the 1960s, and I wonder 
if our society is healthy enough to accomplish anything of that scale (or 
even close to it).”
A Political Career Beckons, and a Friendship Unravels
By 2017, Mr. Vance was planning a move back to Ohio. According to Nelson, 
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, had reached out and 
encouraged him to run as a Republican for Senator Sherrod Brown’s seat.
He kicked the tires of a race as an anti-Trump candidate against a 
formidable Democratic incumbent and took a pass.
It would be four years later that he would run, this time seeking Mr. 
Trump’s support, and win the open Ohio seat that would put him in position 
to be Mr. Trump’s running mate.
Nelson communicated with the Vances over Zoom early in the pandemic, after 
their move back to Ohio. Their email correspondence had died down, and 
Nelson had noted a shift in the tone of Mr. Vance’s social media postings. 
In April 2021, one particularly stood out.
On Twitter, Mr. Vance had come out in support of an Arkansas measure 
banning gender-transitioning care for minors. The bill was ultimately 
adopted over a veto by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who had declared it an 
overreach, before it was overturned by a court ruling.
Image
A screenshot of text messages between Nelson, in blue, and Mr. Vance in 
April 2021.
“Do you support the AR legislation criminalizing providing medical care to 
trans kids?” Nelson texted him in April 2021.
“I do. I recognize this is awkward but I’ll always be honest with you,” Mr. 
Vance responded. “I think the trans thing with kids is so unstudied that it 
amounts to a form of experimentation.”
Nelson wrote back that his position “deeply saddens me.”
“I know I can’t change your mind but the political voice you have become 
seems so far from the man I got to know in law school,” wrote Nelson, later 
explaining their position “as a trans person who accessed needed health 
care so I could live a full life.”
“I have a 1:30,” Mr. Vance wrote. “I will always love you, but I really do 
think the left’s cultural progressivism is making it harder for normal 
people to live their lives.”
It had been a friendship of the special type forged in young adulthood, 
before the accumulation of life responsibilities and fateful decisions 
already made. Now, it was over.