working-class authenticity – JD Vance is positioning himself as Donald Trump’s next successor, leaning on a working-class “authenticity” story shaped by his memoirs and media appearances—even as critics argue that the politics he supports do real damage to working people.
JD Vance is selling a version of his life that sounds like ascent: poverty to college. Marines in Iraq. Yale Law School. then success as an entrepreneur. It’s the story that made his first book. “Hillbilly Elegy. ” a breakout cultural phenomenon—one that sold millions of copies. was published in dozens of languages. and was adapted into a movie directed by Ron Howard.
Now. as Vice President JD Vance continues what many see as a bid to be Donald Trump’s successor. he has gone all in on the next chapter of that identity play. He has written another book—“Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith”—and has embarked on a media tour. In it. Vance reflects on the culture wars. argues for a need for moral renewal in America. and describes his conversion to a conservative form of Catholicism.
The political stakes are impossible to miss. His memoirs and his appearances frame a man returning to faith and roots. But critics say the most consequential part of his story—how someone who claims Christian values can serve a president whose personal behavior and politics violate “almost every core tenet” of those values—gets a light touch instead of real scrutiny.
In that telling, the “working-class” narrative is not just memoir material. It is a tool. It is also an argument—one Vance makes with increasing insistence as he maps a path toward 2028 Republican nomination and, eventually, the presidency.
On Saturday. speaking in an interview on Fox News about the 2024 election. Vance described his “patriotic Christian blue-collar Democratic parents” and said they “don’t have a place in that party anymore.” He also attacked socialists. singling out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. and connected them to Trump’s mass deportations. In Vance’s framing, socialists claim they stand up for working people, but he says they want to “abolish ICE.”.
That language lands in a larger strategy, critics argue, because it keeps bringing the conversation back to the same promise: that Vance is the real thing—working-class, blue-collar, authentically aligned with people who feel left behind.
The counter-argument begins with the origin story. Before entering politics. Vance publicly and privately condemned Trump. calling him “America’s Hitler” and an “idiot.” Venture capitalist and conservative activist Peter Thiel served as Vance’s mentor. funding his career in finance and underwriting Vance’s own business. When Vance ran for the Senate in 2022, Thiel was his largest donor, contributing approximately $15 million to his campaign.
Taken together, the critics say, Vance’s rise wasn’t just grit and bootstraps. “Hillbilly Elegy” and “Communion” largely overlook that help and luck. Instead, they present the books as brand-building—working-class hero and MAGA royalty—more than introspective memoir.
For years, the story has also been contested. “Hillbilly Elegy” was widely criticized for stereotypical depictions of Appalachia and for minimizing the role that structures and institutions—such as the opioid crisis and deindustrialization—play in poverty and social inequality.
Outside the book pages, the dispute widens. The critique of Vance’s working-class authenticity politics is that it doesn’t translate into solidarity or into policy aimed at social democracy. Instead, critics say it functions as a weapon and a cover.
That accusation comes with a list of concrete actions tied to the Trump administration and the GOP: they have gutted the social safety net by taking away food and housing assistance for poor and vulnerable Americans. including children and the elderly; slashed funding for healthcare; limited access to higher education; and targeted a range of programs meant to help intergenerational. upward social mobility.
Critics also point to what they call the cruelty and authoritarianism of policies they associate with the Trump administration: mass deportations. a nationwide system of detention centers. ending humanitarian aid programs around the world. militant nationalism and a war against Iran. and “Orwellian attacks on the truth and reality. ” along with a systematic undermining of the country’s democracy. civil society. and the rule of law.
So the question becomes sharper—and personal: what does “working class” mean when it is used to market identity, but the policies defended under that identity are said to hurt the people being invoked?
The criticism of the term itself has a long arc. In American politics, especially in the post-Civil Rights Movement era, the label “working class” or “blue collar” is presented as race and gender neutral, critics argue, but is often used as a stand-in for white conservative and right-leaning men.
In reality, the argument continues, there are tens of millions of working-class Black and brown people. Approximately 46% of the U.S. working class are women. And working-class Americans—critics say—support progressive policies: being pro-union. expanding the social safety net. investing in infrastructure. and increasing taxes on the rich and corporations to build a fairer economy and more opportunity.
Against that, Vance and Trump’s “working class” rhetoric is described as thinly coded. It is said to appeal to aggrieved white men and women who feel they have “lost their country” to Black and brown people, immigrants, and others who are characterized as cutting ahead in line.
The view is not presented as speculation. It cites research that, critics say, shows it is not economic anxiety but racism, nativism, and white racial resentment that drive support for Trumpism, MAGA, and today’s Republican Party.
Vance’s messaging is also accused of reflecting that paranoia. Critics point to Vance spreading racist conspiracy theories that Black Haitian migrants are stealing and eating people’s dogs and other pets in Springfield. Ohio. and that Black Somalis are engaging in massive welfare fraud in Minneapolis. The charge is that the message is “other people” who are described as undeserving takers—welfare queens—stealing opportunities and resources away from hard-working white people.
In 2024, a conversation with sociologist Arlie Hochschild is used to explain why a certain kind of grievance politics can stick. Hochschild’s book “Stolen Pride: Loss. Shame. and the Rise of the Right” is cited alongside her explanation that people who feel “left behind” and “forgotten” in Appalachia found Trump and MAGA appealing because Trump was a bully—and they wanted someone to be a bully for them.
Hochschild’s account includes a sharp description of the psychological dynamic: “People on the left are aghast and decry the bully and yell about how he or she is a bad person. ” Hochschild told. “The Trump voters and other people on the right set all that aside because Trump is a charismatic leader defending them. their ‘good bully.’” She adds: “That’s how one of many explained things to me. and others agreed with him.”.
But when the focus turns directly to Vance and “Hillbilly Elegy. ” Hochschild’s portrayal is more complicated—and less flattering to the idea that his story lands cleanly with the people he claims to represent. In her telling, the people she spoke to in Pikeville, Kentucky did not find Vance especially compelling.
“One Trump voter told me, ‘Vance is a drag on our ticket,’” Hochschild said. “Others accepted Vance but don’t like him,” she said, “mainly because his book criticizes hillbillies for their ‘bad choices’ and flawed culture and celebrates his own desperate escape out of it.”
Hochschild also emphasized what she described as Vance’s hypocrisy and callousness when it comes to women and reproduction. As Trump’s running mate. Vance famously said that women who haven’t had babies run the risk of becoming “childless cat ladies.” In Hochschild’s framing. Vance’s worldview treats future women as a problem of America’s direction—while. she says. he does not speak about public dollars for drug recovery. job retraining. or other social services.
The argument ends up circling back to a broader historical pattern. Critics cite W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1935 book “Black Reconstruction” to describe it as “the psychological wages of Whiteness.” Around 90 years later. political scientist Heather McGhee describes the dynamic as “drained-pool politics. ” where White America historically denied Black and brown Americans equal access to resources even at the cost of hurting their futures too.
On whether Vance is gaining traction anyway. the piece points to a Verasight poll showing he is supported by 37% of Republican and right-leaning voters. putting him far ahead of other potential GOP primary candidates such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 16% and Donald Trump Jr. at 13%. The gap is framed as likely tied to name recognition from his role as vice president—and the continuing benefits he is said to receive from “Hillbilly Elegy.”.
Still, the political arithmetic is ultimately described as subordinate to Trump. “But Trump is the kingmaker. ” the reporting states. adding that Trump will play a significant role in deciding who will continue the MAGA legacy as his heir. The president is called “a sui generis figure in American history” who “cannot be replicated.”.
Vance. in this view. has the ingredients: he is described as highly intelligent. with a unique personal story. and able to mine white racial resentment and grievance mongering effectively. But the piece says he will still need much more of Trump’s meanness and love of being a political pugilist to win over the MAGA faithful.
At the same time. it says focus groups and polling repeatedly bring up a tension within the broader coalition: non-MAGA Republicans may admire Trump’s aggressiveness and view him as a “fighter. ” but they want his successor to be more “respectable” and “polished.” Whether Vance can satisfy that desire while still appearing authentic to the MAGA base is framed as the determining factor for whether he becomes a historical footnote—or secures a place of his own in the Oval Office.
Vance, the reporting concludes, cannot be “Trump-lite” or an imposter.
In the end, the story isn’t only about books or media appearances. It is about how a political brand built around “working-class” authenticity is being tested against the policies and power it serves—at a moment when the country is looking for its next figure. and when the definition of “working class” itself has become a contested battlefield.
JD Vance United States politics working class Hillbilly Elegy Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith MAGA Donald Trump Peter Thiel 2024 election 2028 Republican nomination mass deportations ICE social safety net Springfield Ohio Minneapolis Arlie Hochschild Stolen Pride W.E.B. Du Bois Heather McGhee