I have heard a JW say when discussing John 1:1: If John the Apostle wrote: The Word was with God and if that God was defined to be "The Father" by Trinitarians then when Trinitarians claimed The Word was God then don't they need to be consistant and interprete the second usage of the word "God" in the same manner? In other words, The Word was with the Father and the Word was the Father.

Scripture defines Scripture. Verse 18 of John chapter 1 is John 1:1 in detail. It has the same exact meaning as John 1:1. You can call it the complete details of John 1:1.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (vs 1)

No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him (vs 18)

So here we have Jesus with the Father, explaining God (meaning all the persons in the godhead) to mankind (not just the Father). This is exactly the same point verse 14 has made previously:

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (vs 14)

If you are grasping this, you are on your way to becoming a Trinitarian.

Now, one might ask: Well then...if Trinitarians interprete John 1:1 as saying: In the beginning the Word was with God (the Father and the Holy Spirit) then shouldn't that same Trinitarian be consistant and admit that the Word would then be the Father and the Holy Spirit?

In one word: no. And the reason is that the Word is part of that same Godhead. The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are all the same God. I suppose God could have had John the Apostle write: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and they were all three the same God", but that's not how God chose to compose that particular verse. I'm sure He had extremely good reasons to have John write down that bit of theology in exactly that particular way. Was it perhaps to get us to really dig in the Bible and be curious about how the Word could be with God and be that same God?

Think about it.