The Atlantic writer George Packer calls JD Vance the most interesting figure in the Trump administration: "He's capable of complex thought, and I also think he may be the future of the MAGA movement."Also, David Bianculli reviews the HBO movie Mountainhead, written by Succession writer/creator Jesse Armstrong.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. And today my guest is George Packer from The Atlantic. His latest story, The Talented Mr. Vance, offers a sharp portrait of Vice President J.D.
Vance, tracing his journey from a childhood shaped by poverty and the Appalachian Hills of Kentucky and the industrial decline of Middletown, Ohio, to the rarefied worlds of Yale Law School, Silicon Valley Venture Capital, and now the White House.
In recent weeks, Vice President Vance has found himself in the international spotlight after he briefly met with Pope Francis the day before he died, followed by a high-profile meeting with Pope Leo at the Vatican several weeks later, where the two discussed pressing global concerns, including immigration and artificial intelligence and the war in Ukraine.
In his article, George Packer examines the contradictions at the heart of Vance's meteoric rise, how the thoughtful, searching voice of hillbilly elegy turned into a politician known for inflammatory rhetoric. Someone who, as Packer writes, sneers at childless cat ladies, peddles lies about pet-eating Haitian immigrants, and sticks a finger in the face of the besieged president of Ukraine.
Packer covers American politics, culture, and foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He's also the author of several acclaimed books, including The Unwinding, An Inner History of the New America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2013. George Packer, welcome back to the show.
It's good to be back with you. Thank you, Tonya.
Well, George, the name of this article, The Talented Mr. Vance, is this clear play on the talented Mr. Ripley. And that is a story about a man who is brilliant and charming, but deceitful in his quest to become someone entirely different from who he once was. And he's willing to betray nearly anyone to preserve that new identity. Is that how you see Vance?
To some degree, it is, yeah. He's gone through some dramatic transformations, even in the way he looks and the way he talks and the way he writes, as if there's no solid core to hold him to who he really is. So Vance immediately, for me, raises a question of who authentically is he? What does he believe? Have his changes been owing to some deep inner rethinking of... his values and his politics?
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