Trump is extraordinarily blunt and narcissistic: he says what he wants to say, takes what he wants to take, with no pretense and no shame. Unlike Vance, he grew up pampered, yet was never accepted by old money or the establishment either. Through a formula of deny, attack, play victim, he has managed to convert countless bankruptcies, impeachments, and lawsuits into raw publicity. He is a beast, and he shattered the repression of “political correctness,” connecting with voters and the public through the most primal desires, rage, and fear, and through the instinctive “America First” buried deep in American blood. His worldview has been completely stripped of any illusion about democracy, freedom, and human rights, leaving only the binary of winning and losing, facts that serve his interests, and the logic of the deal. His language carries no sophisticated vocabulary, no tight argumentation, only the most viscerally memorable emotional output. He embodies everything lurking in the shadow of American civilization: greed, rage, narcissism, a hunger for violence, a contempt for equality. His political logic is unlike any other politician’s. He is too singular. Like a shaman, he has the power and energy to call tens of millions to him as though they were his congregation. Vance follows him precisely because he wants to harness that singular energy to demolish the polished, hypocritical American establishment.