Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance, told friends that she found Donald Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol "deeply disturbing," the Washington Post reported.
A friend who talked to the newspaper said Usha Vance was repulsed by Trump's inciting the mob that descended on the Capitol, and was critical of the support that gave rise to the former president — sharply contrary views to her husband's. He has called the jailed Jan. 6 rioters as "political prisoners."
"Usha found the incursion on the Capitol and Trump's role in it to be deeply disturbing," said the friend, who was not identified. "She was generally appalled by Trump, from the moment of his first election," the friend added.
The friend said seeing Usha Vance, 38, sitting in the same VIP box as Trump during the Republican National Convention was "surreal."
A spokesperson for J.D. Vance declined to comment or to say whether Usha Vance, whose parents are Indian Hindu immigrants, voted for Trump in 2016 or 2020.
She was working as a lawyer and her husband was not yet elected to the Senate in Ohio at the time of the Jan. 6 riot.
The two met while students at Yale Law School.
A Republican strategist for J.D. Vance's 2022 Senate campaign said Usha Vance's opinions of Trump have changed as have her husband's.
"Usha has had a similar shift in views and fully supports Donald Trump and her husband and will do whatever she can to ensure their victory this November," Jai Chabria insisted in a statement provided by the Vance spokesperson.
