JD Vance Must Outgrow Trump to Become President

0:01Irreverent news talk opinion satire. It's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards and J. Vance can only become a serious contender for the White House if he figures out how to get out from under Donald Trump. without alienating MAGA in the process. He doesn't need to denounce Trump or challenge him head on. He just needs to be still standing when Trump inevitably turns on him. If Vance were to break with Trump before going toe-to-toe with Gavin Newsom in 2028's presidential race, it could be the one thing that makes him just interesting enough to win over the moderates. If he could convincingly argue that he played along just to get close to power, We're fully aware of who Trump was.

0:43Some of us might even be willing to accept that as a reasonable explanation. And from my perspective, it's really the only move available to him. It's also the only move that makes him remotely appealing to anybody outside of MAGA, especially if it's framed as disappointment rather than a rebellion. As if he respected Trump and believed in him and gave him the benefit of the doubt and only later realized what the rest of the country had known about the goon for years. But as somebody who doesn't like Trump myself, I sort of, I understand where Trump's voters come from, but I also don't like Trump himself.

1:14And that's made me realize that maybe I'm not quite part of either world totally. Just do a long interview, a carefully worded apology to the nation, a moment of visible discomfort when asked about the past. Then, you know, sit down with Leslie Stahl and talk about mistakes and lessons learned. The same kind of rehabilitation tour Marjorie Taylor Greene is on now. I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. When and if that pivot is compared to the alternative, the contrast is glaring. Gavin Newsom is polished, predictable, and utterly uninspiring. He's Biden 2.0. He radiates the confidence of somebody who has never had to risk anything, and everything about him feels rehearsed, focused, grouped, and as stale as a high-end used car salesman.

1:58He does not project strength, but he does project inevitability, and inevitability is poison in a country that no longer believes anything is real. The J.D. Vance who carefully and opportunistically breaks with Trump would at least be doing something new. He would be acknowledging what millions of Americans already know but are only now willing to say out loud. It's that Trump is a really bad candidate and frankly I think a really bad person. Trump is not a movement. He is a moment and that moment is burning out in real time. That's what makes this so uncomfortable for Trump. Because Trump does not groom successors.

2:33He does not pass the torch. He consumes anyone and everything that looks like a future without him. The second that J.D. Vance is spoken of as a serious 2028 contender, Trump will hear abandonment whether Vance intends it or not. And then there's Erica Kirk's endorsement of Vance at a recent TPUSA event, which Trump is almost certainly reading as provocation, because he sees himself as the kingmaker. And any suggestion that anybody else is positioning a successor can only be interpreted as disloyalty. We are going to get my husband's friend, J.D. Vance, elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.

3:12And if J.D. Vance allowed that kind of messaging to come from Erica Kirk in any way, shape, or form, you can bet your ass that that was a test, measuring how much distance he can create before Trump notices the widening gap. Conservatives are finally starting to wake up from the Trump delirium. They're finally seeing the patterns instead of his excuses. They're noticing how every promise collapses into self-interest. And they're watching the same chaos play out with different villains and the same protagonist. Sometimes these villains are legitimate. I think it's totally fair to say that the policy elites of the Democratic Party haven't been totally concerned about the white working class.

3:49But at the same time, fundamentally what's going on and what Donald Trump has done is change the focus of the white working class from a sort of engaged and constructive politics to a politics of pointing the finger. Hindsight is doing much more work here than any argument ever could. And that is precisely why this moment matters. Not because J.D. Vance is some sort of great hope or great hero, but because his next move is going to reveal whether or not the conservative movement can move past Trump without pretending that the last decade never happened. Whether it can begrudgingly admit that it was wrong without replacing one cult of personality for another.

4:26Thankfully, Trump's age and the simple reality that neither the Constitution nor his health will allow a third term mean that the clock is already running. And if J.D. Vance intends to inherit anything other than the fallout, he's going to need to create space now before Trump anoints a different heir and leaves him stranded. If Vance makes the turn clean enough and early enough, people are going to listen to him. Not because they're fooled, but because there remains a faint, a very faint hope that somebody inside the conservative movement still understands the difference, you know, between right and wrong.

4:58On the other hand, if he remains frozen in place, waiting for permission that is never going to come, he's going to meet the same fate as every other would-be successor before him, swallowed up by a man who cannot tolerate the idea that the world is going to continue on without him. So don't be surprised when J.D. Vance takes on Marjorie Taylor Greene as his running mate. And until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time by... And we say bye-bye! Newsweek Radio is a member of The Trust Project. I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. But as somebody who doesn't like Trump myself, I sort of, I understand where Trump's voters come from, but I also don't like Trump himself.

5:33And that's made me realize that maybe. It's that Trump is a really bad candidate and frankly, I think a really bad person.