Trump Gets In One Last Dig At JD Vance During Victory Speech

After a highly contentious, surprise-ridden election season, Donald Trump's 2024 campaign ended with a victory lap. Trump addressed an excited crowd after besting Vice President Kamala Harris, eliciting cheers from the moment he took the stage. Even on such a celebratory occasion, Trump couldn't resist making one perfectly on-brand move: taking a final dig at JD Vance. At one point during his address, Trump allowed Vance to make a few remarks. Then, after looking terribly bored while waiting for Vance to stop talking, the president-elect took back the mic to throw subtle Trumpian shade (via X, formerly Twitter): "He's turned out to be a good choice. I took a little heat at the beginning, but ... I knew the brain was a good one, about as good as it gets." 

Throughout the 2024 election season, the relationship between JD Vance and Donald Trump revealed plenty of peculiar nuances and seemingly insurmountable contradictions. After all, before being named Trump's running mate, Vance openly admitted to not being a fan of him and even likened him to Hitler. For his part, Trump has never been exceptionally complimentary toward Vance, and his victory speech is just one of multiple examples of him subtly snubbing him on the campaign trail. However, the oldest person to be elected president and first millennial vice-president are now looking at four years standing by each other's side.  Like it or not, they will have to find a way to make their partnership work.

Although they haven't always seen eye to eye, Donald Trump and left-field VP pick JD Vance did seem to be in lockstep when it came to their final messages to voters. After using divisive rhetoric throughout their campaign, both running mates began to preach unity as the election season drew to a close. For example, Trump urged his supporters to extend an olive branch to President Joe Biden at a late-October rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In response to Biden equating Trump's supporters with "garbage," the controversial politician said (via Fox News): "Please forgive him for not knowing what he said. These people are terrible, terrible, terrible to say a thing like that. But he really doesn't know."

After casting his vote on Election Day, Vance took the opportunity to give his two cents on unity (via The Express Tribune): "My attitude is the best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can ... and remind our fellow Americans that we are all fundamentally on the same team. Trump also called for unity in his election victory speech (via Today), saying: "It's time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us. It's time to unite." However, it remains to be seen if he will apply this call to action to his relationship with Vance.