BREAKING: The Atlantic marked the Fourth of July by republishing an essay Vice President JD Vance wrote a decade ago that sharply criticized Donald Trump, reviving the stark contrast between Vance’s past views and his current role as one of Trump’s closest political allies.
Originally published in 2016, the essay captured Vance during a period when he was one of the Republican Party’s most outspoken critics of Trump’s rise. At the time, Vance argued that Trump was capitalizing on the economic frustrations of struggling Americans while offering what he described as false hope rather than lasting solutions.
In the essay, Vance wrote that Trump’s political appeal resembled “the needles in America’s collective vein,” suggesting that Trump’s message provided emotional satisfaction without addressing deeper structural problems facing working-class communities.
The republished article also renewed attention to other well-known comments Vance made before entering politics. During the 2016 campaign, Vance publicly identified himself as a “Never Trump guy” and privately expressed even harsher criticism. In messages later made public, Vance described Trump as an “idiot” and wrote that he struggled to decide whether Trump was “a cynical ahole like Nixon”** or “America’s Hitler.” Those remarks have repeatedly resurfaced as Vance’s political relationship with Trump evolved.
Over the years, however, Vance dramatically changed his public position. After launching his own political career, winning election to the U.S. Senate, and ultimately becoming Trump’s vice president, he emerged as one of the administration’s most vocal defenders, embracing policies and rhetoric he had once criticized.
The Fourth of July republication was accompanied by commentary from The Atlantic writer Peter Wehner, who argued that Vance’s earlier warnings deserve renewed attention in light of current political developments. Wehner contended that many of the concerns Vance expressed nearly a decade ago remain relevant today and questioned how completely the vice president had reversed his earlier convictions.
Wehner also cited recent polling and broader political trends, including declining approval ratings for Trump in some surveys, continued concerns about inflation and consumer prices, and public disagreements among prominent conservative figures over the direction of the Republican Party. He argued that these developments reflected challenges Vance himself once anticipated.
In particularly pointed language, Wehner wrote that Vance had transformed from one of Trump’s most perceptive conservative critics into one of his strongest defenders, describing him as “a peddler of lies he is surely clever enough to recognize as such.” That characterization reflects Wehner’s opinion rather than an established fact.
The essay concludes by recalling a passage from Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he wrote that “nothing compares to the fear that you’re becoming the monster in your closet.” Wehner used the quotation to argue that Vance’s own earlier writings have become a lens through which to examine his political transformation.
The republication comes as Vance continues to play a central role in the Trump administration, highlighting the remarkable evolution of a politician who went from being one of Trump’s most prominent Republican critics to one of his closest political allies. By revisiting Vance’s own words from 2016, The Atlantic sought to underscore the contrast between his earlier warnings about Trump and his current position defending the president’s agenda.
