This is a version of The Atlantic Every day, a magazine that guides you through the top stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Register here.
Mike Pence should have been a warning to JD Vance about the inevitable humiliation after joining the ticket with Donald Trump. Before becoming Trump’s running mate a decade ago, conservative Christian values were central to Pence’s political identity, but in October 2016, he reluctantly sided with Trump after the release of a tape in which Trump bragged about grabbing women “a little bit.” It was a sign of things to come. Pence became vice president, and for the next four years, he defended his boss through moral outrage and deficit blasts that undermined his fiscal conservatism, only flinching when Trump asked him to help steal the election. His gift? Trump did nothing while the mob threatened to strangle Pence.
All of this was common sense when Vance agreed to run with Trump in 2024. No one can run for president without big ambitions—almost every streak for at least a century has tipped themselves to be the next president—but Vance is very ambitious. Being Trump’s running mate required years of effort to be happy with the boy Vance had, in the pages of this magazine, known as “traditional heroin” and elsewhere it is called “American Hitler.” Perhaps Vance’s ambition blinded him to Pence’s lesson, but the Iran war is teaching him the hard way.
For the first year of Trump’s presidency, Vance’s Faustian bargain looked like just that: a bargain. Although smart, Vance is not a gifted politician. He won the Senate election from Ohio only for Trump’s confirmationand he lacks anything like Trump’s charisma. With Trump’s signature, however, he was not only one heartbeat away from the presidency but also became the heir apparent to Trump’s political movement and the GOP nominee for 2028. Trump has often praised Vance, and Vance’s most outspoken opponent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he told it Vanity Fair that he won’t run if Vance runs. (Vance isn’t betting. “I’ll give you $100 for every person you make look really dirty compared to me,” Vance joked to the newspaper’s photographer. “And $1,000 if it’s Marco.”)
But Trump’s recent military policy has complicated this easy ascent. Vance has built a political reputation for his opposition to foreign intervention, which he traces to his own disillusionment while serving as a Marine in Iraq. That meshed well with Trump’s (if not his) first-term image the truth), but it conflicts with the royal ambitions of his second. Vance was the obvious absence when Trump launched the January raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. He has also been in short supply since the start of the Iran war, which is threatening to turn into an abyss at record speed.
The Iran campaign shows, as my colleague Idrees Kahloon wrote recentlythat “within the Trump administration, Vance’s opinion seems to be very important.” Worse for Vance, Rubio is riding. MAGA flies Laura Loomer noted that when Trump spoke at Vance’s home last week, the secretary of state received congratulations from the president. What Vance got was short shrift.
Vance has begun to make public statements in support of the war, but they seem to be coming from gritted teeth. Reinforcing this display is what certainly seems like a deliberate leak Politics On Friday that Vance “had doubts about the United States striking Iran in the lead up to President Donald Trump’s decision to start a war.” This report was received poorly in some quarters as a sudden attempt by Vance to distance himself from the doomed war, or, as New Republicof Alex Shepard he put it, “Machiavelli’s cunning and surprising self-sacrifice.” One can never rule this out with Vance, but I think it’s possible that the story is less a strategic maneuver than Vance reacting with frustration at being so ignored by the president.
Since Vance has any serious faith in anything other than himself, his opposition to military intervention seems singular. Although he has changed many of his positions over the past decade, he has remained steadfast on this one, and seems to say the same things in private as he does in public. When an administration official mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlanticeditor-in-chief, for the conversation of Waves Regarding the strike against Yemeni militias last year, Vance was skeptical about the US action. “I hate to liberate Europe again,” he wrote. (Turnabout is fair play: Now Europe appears without enthusiasm about bailing out Trump in the Strait of Hormuz.)
What Vance is learning now is that serving Trump doesn’t just mean compromising on some extraneous issues you don’t really care about, or keeping a straight face during his pointless digressions. Instead, Trump will humiliate you even—or especially—over your deeply held views. Just as Pence found himself having to defend Trump’s less socially conservative leanings, Vance is now defending his war on 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.
Related:
Here are four new stories from Atlantic:
Today’s news
- President Trump said that “a lot of countries have told me they are on their way” to go to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Germany refused the call to send warships; Britain and the EU have said they are still discussing options.
- Israel said it had begun “Basic and targeted activities” southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, adding that residents in the area will remain homeless until it considers its northern border safe.
- Rare rating 4 out of 5 threat of severe weather it affects the mid-Atlantic from Maryland to South Carolina. Forecasters warn of possible damaging winds, hail, and severe tornadoes.
Dispatches
Explore all our newsletters here.
Evening Read
What 100 Million Volts Does to the Body and Mind
By Jacob Stern
How does it feel to be struck by lightning?
There is no simple analog. A defibrillator delivers up to 1,000 volts to the patient’s heart; prisoners executed by electric chair usually receive about 2,000. normal lightning strikein contrast, passes 100 million volts or more. But electricity runs through the body in milliseconds, and therefore often saves it. Some people faint immediately after being hit. Some remember that moment clearly, as if in slow motion: a flash of light that removes all vision; sound, which many survivors say is the loudest they have ever heard. The pain, for some, is great, but others feel no pain at all. “It felt like adrenaline, but stronger,” one survivor reported. “I felt a strange tingle,” said another, “a burning sensation from head to toe.”
More From Atlantic
Cultural Breakdown
Investigate. This year’s Oscars were a success two equally popular runnersDavid Sims writes.
Take a look. Michael Tedder is there rational understanding of Saturday Night Live graphic (streaming on Peacock) about a hospital called MAGA.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this magazine.
When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for your support Atlantic.
