Trump sycophant, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) was not always so supportive of the former president’s methods and even attacked him over his racist birther theory.
CNN’s KFile uncovered several of Donalds’ social media posts and interviews from 2011 and 2012, in which Donalds slammed his now idol for claiming Obama’s birth certificate is fake.
“Trump is a self-promoter yelling about 25% tariffs on China,” Donalds, a then Tea Party activist who mounted an unsuccessful bid for Congress at time, wrote in a Facebook post in April 2011.
“I don’t question his religion or his citizenship. I would like to know what his grades were, and if you remember so did Hillary Clinton,” he said, adding, “Trump is a huge distraction, and cares more about himself than the country in my opinion, but I could care less about him.”
A month later, Donalds celebrated Trump’s decision not to run for president in 2012, writing: “Trump won’t run. Thank God!”
Donalds changed his tune on Trump when he was elected in 2016 to the Florida House of Representatives. He called Trump “authentic” and spoke at rallies with him. By the time Donalds was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2020 he was full MAGA, so much so that he is now being considered as a potential running mate for Trump.
Donalds’ spokesperson defended his past comments in a statement to CNN.
“President Trump is considering Byron as his running mate because of the Congressman’s steadfast support for the 45th President and his historic policy agenda,” the spokesperson said. “The fact that these decade-old posts are now resurfacing in the middle of running mate deliberations is weak but typical of CNN.”
