The Atlantic republishes JD Vance’s Trump op-ed from 2016
Peter Wehner said the republished 2016 essay shows Trump’s decline, citing a 30% approval rating, rising prices and cracks in the MAGA base.
- On Saturday, the 250th anniversary of America, The Atlantic republished a 10-year-old op-ed by Vice President JD Vance that delivered a blistering rebuke of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
- In the 2016 essay "Opioid of the Masses," Vance argued Trump offered an "easy escape" from pain, calling the candidate's promises "the needles in America's collective vein."
- Revisiting the column, Atlantic writer Peter Wehner noted Vance's past "Never Trump" stance and his admission that he oscillated between viewing Trump as a "cynical asshole like Nixon" or "America's Hitler."
- Trump's 30% approval rating, rising consumer prices, and a fracturing MAGA base suggest the "comedown Vance predicted" has finally arrived, Wehner argued.
- Wehner traced the Vice President's political path from the Senate to the vice presidency, describing him as a "teller of hard truths" who transformed into "a peddler of lies he is surely clever enough to recognize as such.
12 Articles
12 Articles
The Atlantic Republishes a Scathing Op-Ed About Trump. Guess Who Wrote It
If someone handed you a blistering opinion piece comparing Donald Trump to a dangerous opioid and asked who wrote it, you’d probably start guessing Trump’s usual critics. You’d almost certainly never guess Vice President JD Vance. But that’s exactly what The Atlantic reminded readers of over the Fourth of July weekend when it republished a scathing 2016 essay Vance wrote at the height of the presidential campaign—back when he was one of Trump’s …
The Atlantic Republishes JD Vance’s Anti-Trump Essay
The Atlantic republished a 10-year old JD Vance essay that dismissed Donald Trump as nothing more than “cultural heroin.” Wrote Vance: “He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t. Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.” “Trump is cultural heroin. He makes some feel better for a bit. […]
When JD Vance Called Trump “Cultural Heroin”
The Atlantic reports: Ten years ago today, in the middle of the presidential campaign, an essay in The Atlantic set out to explain the appeal of Donald Trump. Its author traced that appeal to the social decline and cultural trauma he had known firsthand, in an impoverished childhood. The author, J. D. Vance, had only days earlier published Hillbilly Elegy, which went on to sell roughly 3 million copies and made him, almost overnight, the country…
On the occasion of the American National Day, "The Atlantic" took a devastating essay by J.D. Vance about Donald Trump from the archive and embarrassed the man who ascended to the right hand of the US President.
The Atlantic Publishes JD Vance's 2016 Essay Bashing Trump
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The Atlantic published a piece, Saturday, which was highly critical of President Donald Trump — which may not seem all that surprising… until you notice the byline. The essay — titled “Opioid of the Masses” — was written by none other than Vice President JD Vance. The VP wrote the column in 2016, and The Atlantic republished it Saturday — 10 years to the day after it first ran. In the piece, Vance argued that Trump is effec…
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