The Atlantic republishes brutal anti-Trump essay for July 4 — its author is JD Vance

On America’s 250th anniversary Saturday, The Atlantic republished a decade-old essay that delivered a blistering rebuke of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump – one that was written by now-Vice President JD Vance.

Atlantic writer Peter Wehner revisited the July 4, 2016 column Vance wrote just after the release of his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy." At the time, Vance argued that Trump was exploiting the economic and cultural collapse of working-class America, calling Trump’s promises “the needles in America’s collective vein.”

Wehner pointed to Trump's cratering approval ratings, rising consumer prices and a fracturing MAGA base as signs the "comedown Vance predicted" had finally arrived. He cited one recent poll putting Trump's approval at just 30%, along with cracks among Republican lawmakers and even longtime allies like Tucker Carlson.

“Ten summers ago [Vance] understood, better than most, the threat Trump posed to America. Vance, who described himself as a ‘Never Trump guy,’ thought Trump was an ‘idiot,’” Wehner wrote.

“He admitted to a friend at the time that he goes ‘back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.’ But then ambition made its offer, and Vance, who had seen the danger so clearly, discovered he could see his way around it. The first stop was the Senate; the next was the vice presidency.”

Wehner went on to argue that Vance – someone he described as "a teller of hard truths" – had since transformed into "a peddler of lies he is surely clever enough to recognize as such."

Quoting Vance's own memoir line that "nothing compares to the fear that you're becoming the monster in your closet," Wehner concluded that the private monster Vance once feared "is a public one" now.