Will J. D. Vance Inherit MAGA?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Washington, News, Politics, President, Wickenden, Wnyc, Barack, Obama, Lizza

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2026

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Washington Roundtable discusses Vice-President J. D. Vance’s week on the world stage: stumping for the Kremlin-aligned Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán and being tasked with leading American negotiations in Pakistan to resolve the war with Iran, a conflict he reportedly opposed. The panel explores the events and people that shaped Vance, and how his political evolution toward MAGA may not be enough to make him the Republican Presidential nominee in 2028. “Anyone who comes after Trump is going to have a really hard time inheriting a cult of personality and turning that back into a party,” the staff writer Susan B. Glasser says. Vance is “not this kind of charismatic movement leader.”

This week’s reading:

“The Costs of Trump’s Iran-War Folly,” by Susan B. Glasser
“Trump’s Strategic and Moral Failure in Iran,” by David Remnick
“The Global Stakes of Hungary’s Pivotal Election,” by Kapil Komireddi
“A U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Is Here, but Trump’s Stone Age Mentality Endures,” by Ishaan Tharoor
“How the Internet Fringe Infiltrated Republican Politics,” by Antonia Hitchens
“Israel’s War in Lebanon Has Not Stopped,” by Isaac Chotiner
“An Economist’s Quest to Solve America’s Wage Problem,” by John Cassidy

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you see the inflation numbers?
0:02.2	They're over 3%.
0:03.4	Not good, Jen.
0:04.1	I'm surprised it's just over 3%.
0:06.3	It feels a lot more.
0:08.9	I mean, it feels bad to go shopping just to get the groceries, I think.
0:13.7	I've been cooking a lot more at home.
0:15.9	Yeah.
0:16.3	Let's just say we're eating a lot more stewed meats because you can get a little more down market. Did you see there, I think it was RFK juniors who said that you ought to try liver. You know, organ meats are cheap. I thought, wow, boy, that is really a good platform to run on. Eat your liver. Organ meats are cheap. Enjoy your two pencils, your one doll, and your you're... That has sort of Hoover-esque implications.
0:39.0	It has a certain classic quality.
0:41.5	A liver in every pot.
0:47.3	Welcome to the political scene from the New Yorker, a weekly discussion about the big questions in American politics.
0:53.8	I'm Evan Osnose, and I'm joined by my
0:55.8	colleagues, Jane Mayer, and Susan Glasser. Hi, Jane, and hi Susan. Hey, Evan. Hey, there. Great to be with you
1:02.4	guys. Vice President J.D. Vance is a figure who, let's face it, is a bit hard to pin down.
1:13.6	To some, he's an American story of reinvention.
1:16.8	Grew up in the Rust Belt, served in Iraq, went on to Yale Law School, and then wrote the very successful memoir, Hillbilly Elogy.
1:24.3	But to others, he's something very different.
1:26.0	He's the embodiment of Washington ambition,
1:28.8	a kind of constantly adaptable person, opportunistic, slippery, as his critics would put it.
1:35.2	This week, he was in the headlines. He stumped in Hungary for the autocrat Victor Orban,
1:40.2	who's aligned with the Kremlin and celebrated by the global far right.
	...

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