JD Vance’s 10-Year-Old Anti-Trump Essay Tops Atlantic List as 1,300-Word Takedown Goes Viral
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · Jul 5
JD Vance’s 10-Year-Old Anti-Trump Essay Tops Atlantic List as 1,300-Word Takedown Goes Viral
3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Jul 5
Summary
The Atlantic’s republished 2016 essay by Vice President JD Vance became the site’s most-read article Saturday, resurfacing his past denunciation of Donald Trump as “cultural heroin.”
The 1,300-word piece went viral after its 10th-anniversary republication, with Vance arguing Trump exploited voters’ real grievances while offering easy promises he could not fulfill.
Social media users and Atlantic writer Tom Nichols highlighted the article’s popularity as Vance simultaneously posted clips of Trump’s Fourth of July speech.
The revival lands as Trump enters the second half of his second term with weakened popularity, renewing scrutiny of whether Vance’s original critique now looks prescient.