CNN’s KFile Reveals Potential Trump Running Mate Byron Donalds Slammed Trump Over Obama Birther Claims

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) has been a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, but that has not always been the case. CNN’s KFile uncovered a slew of social media posts and interviews in which Donalds severely disapproved of Trump’s rhetoric, namely his racially motivated attack on former President Barack Obama.

While the posts go back quite a few years — they’re from around 2011, when Donalds was involved with the Tea Party movement — this wasn’t just one post about Trump, who had decided against running for president in 2012. When Trump announced that decision, Donalds was seemingly pretty happy about it, posting on Facebook: “Trump won’t run. Thank God!”

Donalds also wrote about Trump:

“Trump is a huge distraction, and cares more about himself than the country in my opinion, but I could care less about him,” Donalds wrote in a Facebook post in April 2011 when discussing Trump’s claims that Obama’s birth certificate was fake.

“I don’t question his religion or his citizenship,” Donalds said. “Quite a few Democrats and liberals still think Bush caused 9/11.”

“Trump is a self-promoter yelling about 25% tariffs on China,” Donalds said in the same string of Facebook posts.

While the subject matter seems vintage at this point, the posts could come into play if Trump considers Donalds as his running mate in this year’s general election. Donalds’ team didn’t seem to think Donalds’ past comments were very significant. They told Kfile:

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 fact that these decade-old posts are now resurfacing in the middle of running mate deliberations is weak but typical of CNN.

It appears that Donalds changed his tune about Trump in 2016, when he was elected to a seat in Florida’s House of Representatives. Donalds finally made it to Congress in 2020, the year Trump was voted out of office.

KFile pointed out several other Republicans who are on the list of potential VP picks who have previously criticized Trump on the record before becoming ardent supporters, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

The report didn’t include any comment from the Trump campaign.