#demagogue

Vice president J.D. Vance is realizing that signing on with Donald Trump might seem like a shortcut to the top, but it’s actually a guarantee of humiliation.

(Photo: Mark Peterson / Redux)

J. D. Vance Learns What Mike Pence Already Knows

Mike Pence should have been a warning to J. D. Vance about the inevitable abasement in store once you join a ticket with Donald Trump. Before he became Trump’s running mate a decade ago, conservative Christian values were the center of Pence’s political identity, but in October 2016, he reluctantly stood by Trump after the release of the tape in which Trump boasted about grabbing women “by the pussy.” It was a sign of things to come. Pence became vice president, and for the next four years, he defended his boss through moral abominations and deficit explosions that cut against his fiscal conservatism, flinching only when Trump asked him to help steal an election. His reward? Trump did nothing while a mob threatened to hang Pence.

All of this was common knowledge when Vance agreed to run with Trump in 2024. No one lands on a presidential ticket if they’re not outrageously ambitious — nearly every veep for at least a century has fancied themselves a future president — but Vance is particularly brazen. Becoming Trump’s running mate required a yearslong effort to ingratiate himself with a guy whom Vance had, in the pages of this magazine, referred to as “cultural heroin” and elsewhere called “America’s Hitler.” Maybe Vance’s ambition blinded him to Pence’s lesson, but the war in Iran is teaching it to him the hard way.

What Vance is learning now is that serving Trump doesn’t mean just compromising on some ancillary issues that you care less about, or keeping a straight face during his nonsensical digressions. Instead, Trump will humiliate you even - or especially - on your most deeply held views. Just as Pence found himself obliged to defend Trump’s least socially conservative tendencies, Vance is now defending his war in Iran. Vance may have thought he was getting a cheap ticket to the pinnacle of power. The price, it turns out, is much higher than he realized.

By David A. Graham

The Atlantic - March 16, 2026

Shared from Apple News

So we all know that the wisest thing to do when he says something outrageous is to tell him to fuck off and go about our day. The media attention just empowers him.

Instead, it seems like everyone (from all political perspectives) is reacting to Ben Gvir's most recent provocation as if it was an announcement of official policy from the Prime Minister.

Like...a lot of otherwise very smart people who really should recognize this pattern by now.

Both of these men are much smarter than this.

Run 3 Doodle Dump!

I drew Bunny, Child, Runner, Demagogue, Duplicator, Angel, Student, Pastafarian, and the Gentleman!

Forest green is Runner, neon is Duplicator, gold is Angel, pink is Student, and dark gold is a special someone…. 👀👀👀

He is making his way towards becoming a Tyrant.

He uses emotions and his speaking ability to appeal to the people on the grounds that their problems stem from 'Other People', and they are to be blamed.

He lies and attacks the 'Deep State', his chosen elite.

He has fundamentally changed the way people view the United States and the presidency.

He has gone against established norms, especially in international affairs.

All in the name of 'the people', and 'smaller government'.

Das Geheimnis des Agitators ist, sich so dumm zu machen, wie seine Zuhörer sind, damit sie glauben, sie seien so gescheit wie er.

The secret of the demagogue is to make himself appear as stupid as his followers, so that they imagine themselves to be as clever as he is.

—Karl Kraus, Sprüche und Widersprüche, pt iv: Presse, Dummheit, Politik (1924)

Trump knows that the best way to quickly end the Ukraine War and present himself as a capable peace broker is to force concessions from Ukraine in the form of occupied territories ceded to Russia.