Trump's 'pay dirt' blows up in the heart of MAGA land

US President Donald Trump points toward supporters at the end of a campaign rally for US Senator Jon Husted (R-OH) and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in Youngstown, Ohio, US, October 12, 2026.

I am sometimes asked if it would be better to leave Donald Trump alone, given that the immediate consequence of impeaching and removing him would be President JD Vance.

I agree with the subtext of the question. Vance is cunning and zealous, a true believer in the cause of Christian nationalism. If anyone can realize the fashy dreams of Big Tech, it’s him.

But in addition to my belief in leaving future problems to our future selves, I am not concerned about succession. First, because removing Trump would be good, in and of itself. Second, because, as scary as it is to think of him as president, no one likes JD Vance.

Other than being the vice president, the best thing he is known for is being a junior senator from Ohio who changed his identity as often as he changed his socks. Trump’s supporters are not his. Vance’s biggest audience is manosphere podcasters and conservatives who believe the Pope isn’t Catholic enough. As loud as they are, they are not a constituency.

But Vance’s main problem is his reputation for being a mercenary, which is to say, for being a political whore who is willing to sell his mind, body and soul for power, even to the point of self-humiliation. The thing about self-humiliation, however, is that eventually, no one trusts you or takes you seriously, not even the people for whom you are humiliating yourself.

Vance does not see it as humiliation, because there are no limits to his ambition. Honor and decency and self-respect – these are mere tools for achieving goals. But Trump has been on the scene for a long time. It's been a decade of disgusting displays. With his disapproval rating shattering records, the public's tolerance for disgust may be reaching a tipping point.

I don’t want to make too much of this, as the hole we have dug for ourselves is deep, but I think we should consider what’s happening in Ohio. The Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, put $4 million into an effort to attack his opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, with an ad featuring her own mother accusing her of lying about her traumatic childhood.

Acton responded by producing court documents showing that her stepfather raped her when she was 12, and that her mom said she lied about it. Donna Arthur lost custody of Acton and her brother. They have not been in contact since then. (A grand jury indicted the stepfather, Cledith Arthur, in 1978. He fled the state and later died in Pennsylvania in 2004.)

The ad generated an enormous backlash in Ohio. The Columbus Dispatch, the state’s flagship paper, endorsed Acton in response to it, calling it “revolting and unsettling.” Ohio’s GOP elites lined up to denounce it: the secretary of state, the former House speaker, and US Senator Jon Husted. Ramaswamy's primary challenger, Casey Putsch, beloved of Buckeye State neo-Nazis, said he would vote for the Democratic candidate as a consequence of seeing the ad. This morning, the current Republican governor, Mike DeWine, called it “deeply, deeply troubling.” He did not retract his endorsement of Ramaswamy, but urged him to take it down.

Ramaswamy had a chance earlier this week to distance himself from the ad. It was not clear at the time it went viral that his campaign had anything to do with it. Then on Wednesday, he removed all doubt by pouring millions into distributing it. At this point, what’s done is done. Even if he took it down, he’s already known for embracing the ad after it sparked outrage.

The ad was already drawing fire by the time JD Vance arrived. Despite that, during a stump speech, he said Ramaswamy “calls it out like it is, and calls Amy Acton a liar.” To reporters, he said he's "disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America. I would say to Ohio Republicans, do you actually think that Amy Acton is unfit to serve as governor of the state of Ohio? I do.”

Students of authoritarian history say successors are rarely successful. The leader cannot tolerate the idea of someone coming after him, because if that were true, his power would slowly diminish as his coalition prepared for the future. It seems Donald Trump is on the same track. JD Vance will not inherit maga. His boss will sabotage any attempt to.

But Vance is doomed anyway, which is why I don’t fret much about the consequences of removing the president. Vance is the product of politics that treats people as a means, rather than an end unto themselves. There is nothing Trump’s people will not say to “own the libs.” There is no principle they will not profane in pursuit of power. Accuse the victim of child rape of lying? Yes. Weaponize her estranged and clearly troubled mother against her? Yes.

Right on cue, Trump wrote: "The press is lying to convince everyone that this Ad is bad, because it's so good! Who wouldn't use such an Ad? I would. It's called 'hitting pay dirt.'"

We have seen these disgusting displays for 10 long years. By now, the routine is familiar. Patience is wearing thin. All pretense is gone: there really is no sense of decency. It’s fitting that Vance is from Ohio, because in Ohio, we are seeing intimations of a lasting reaction.

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