‘I’m almost embarrassed’: JD Vance confronted over past criticism of Trump

The Independent World Thursday 18 June 2026, 11:30 UTC By Holly Bishop 1 min read

Key Points

Independent TV Showing now | News 01:41 ‘I’m almost embarrassed’: JD Vance confronted over past criticism of Trump JD Vance was left “embarrassed” after his past criticisms of Donald Trump were read back to him. Appearing on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast on Thursday (18 June), the US vice president explained why he changed his opinion on Mr Trump, who he previously accused of “taking advantage of the struggling working class”. After Mr Bartlett read out quotes from Mr Vance’s 2016 piece for The Atlantic, where he said that he believed Mr Trump would be a failed president if elected, the US vice president said he had been wrong. “I believed it when I wrote it, and reading it now I'm almost embarrassed that I wrote it 'cause it was so obviously absurd.”

JD Vance (PERSON) Trump Independent TV (ORG) Trump JD Vance (ORG) Donald Trump (PERSON) Steven Bartlett’s (PERSON) US (LOCATION) Trump (PERSON) Bartlett (PERSON) Vance (PERSON) Atlantic (LOCATION)

Originally published by The Independent World Read original →

Exclusive: Event co-founded by Jordan Peterson will bring together global populist-right figures, US state officials and Eton teachersThe Reform UK MPs Sarah Pochin and Andrew Rosindell will be there. As will a plethora of Reform advisers, backroom staff and figures such as Ben Delo, a British crypto billionaire who has given £4m to Nigel Farage’s party. Yet as populist-right politicians from across the globe and their multimillionaire backers prepare for this year’s Alliance for Responsible...

The Guardian Politics 7m ago

EU lawmakers back suspension of wastewater cleanup rules in right-wing alliance

BRUSSELS — The European Parliament backed a conservative push Thursday to pause parts of the EU’s wastewater cleanup law, over fears that making drugmakers pay to remove micropollutants could fuel medicine shortages. Lawmakers in Strasbourg voted in favor of a proposal to suspend industry’s obligation to pay to remove pollutants such as antibiotics and microplastics from wastewater, in a move that risks putting Europe’s polluter-pays principle in the law on hold. Members of the European...

Politico EU 11m ago

Israeli foreign minister to ‘sever all contact’ with top EU diplomat

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar vowed on Thursday to cut contact with top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas, triggering a public spat that Kallas later tried — and failed — to defuse. “Ms. Kaja Kallas … has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” Sa’ar wrote on X Thursday morning, referring to reports last month that Kallas had compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid-era South Africa. Sa’ar accused the...

Politico EU 18m ago

Graft probe into Spanish ex-PM Zapatero expanded to daughters and secretary, court says

The former premier defended his innocence during a three-hour hearing before Calama on Wednesday, becoming the first former or serving Spanish head of government to declare as a suspect in a corruption investigation. A judge investigating Spain's former Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for alleged influence peddling has expanded his politically explosive probe to the Socialist's daughters, a court said on Thursday. The investigation into a titan of the Spanish left comes as a...

Euronews 18m ago

‘I’m almost embarrassed’: JD Vance confronted over past criticism of Trump

Related Stories

Leading figures from Eton college to attend rightwing London summit

EU lawmakers back suspension of wastewater cleanup rules in right-wing alliance

Israeli foreign minister to ‘sever all contact’ with top EU diplomat

Graft probe into Spanish ex-PM Zapatero expanded to daughters and secretary, court says