Republicans can't copy Trump's 'sociopathic' cruelty for 1 key reason

President Donald Trump looks on as he exits Air Force One on his arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, January 31, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Certain Republicans continue to try to mimic President Donald Trump's "sociopathic" cruelty, but according to one prominent New York Times columnist, their attempts to do so are doomed to backfire for one key reason.

In the latest edition of his "Takes" video series on YouTube, liberal Times columnist Jamelle Bouie discussed the continuing fallout from Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's widely criticized new attack ad. Going after Democratic nominee Amy Acton, the ad featured her estranged mother calling her a liar, though many observers quickly noted that Acton has not seen her mother since 1978, when she lost custody of Acton and her brother due to the abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of their stepfather. Her mother remained with her second husband until his death, fleeing the state so he could not face charges.

The ad has since been denounced far and wide as one of the most morally bankrupt in the long history of political attack ads, but Ramaswamy has since opted to stand by it, following support from Vice President JD Vance, who chastised other Republicans for criticizing the ad.

In his latest video, Bouie said that he was "not at all surprised" to see Ramaswamy, whom he called "a snot-nosed little weasel and all-around unpleasant person," stand by the attack ad, given that he and other MAGA Republicans seem to believe their "path to victory lies in embracing the most sociopathic aspects of the MAGA coalition, the cruelty, the disdain for basic decency." This logic, he argued, is flawed because these would-be Trump successors are missing the truth of why voters let such things slide from Trump.

"My view is that that stuff really only works when coming from Donald Trump because people don't associate Donald Trump as a politician," Bouie explained. "They think of him as a celebrity entertainer. So, there's an element of a nod and a wink when it comes to Trump's use of cruelty. Many people, I don't think they're right about this, but many people perceive it as being something like a joke, and they're in on the joke. Coming from Ramaswami, this stuff just seems mean."

He added: "But I'll say I am a little struck that Vance has completely thrown himself behind this. I'm certain that some of it is a political calculation. He's trying to be the MAGA standard bearer, and that means not just being a vicious partisan, but being exceptionally cruel. It's also the case that Vance has a very real mean streak, a very real cruel streak. And I'm sure he just relishes in this."

Diving into "a little bit of psychoanalysis," Bouie added that there was likely something deeper in Vance's reaction to Acton, given their very similar backgrounds, both sharing coming from "low-income working-class Ohio" with "exceptionally difficult family lives," as well as abusive mothers.

"Then I don't think it's too crazy to say that for all that Vance might say that he's basically forgiven his mother, that he hasn't," Bouie argued. "That he holds on to a lot of resentment towards his mother, a lot of anger towards his mother. And he is smart enough and sophisticated enough to have transmogrified this resentment into an ideology about how independent women are threatening the American family, of how independent women are threatening the United States, about how in the same way that his childhood would have been improved by a more stable family structure with a father and a mother in traditional roles, the United States will be brought back from dysfunction by establishing patriarchal rule and putting women back in their place. So, one element of this is I think he looks at Acton and sees the kinds of women for whom he has real disdain. But there's another piece of this, if we're going to go even deeper into our amateur psychoanalysis, which is that I think Vance might see some of himself in Acton. What I mean by that is that in Acton, Vance sees a victim. In himself, he sees a victim."

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