As the country approaches the halfway mark of President Donald Trump’s second term, a familiar faction is stirring. The neoconservative establishment that spent years decrying Trump’s America First agenda is now setting its sights on Vice President J.D. Vance — the man widely seen as Trump’s likely successor. The attacks have become so pronounced that critics are already calling it the “NeverVance” movement, and according to a new analysis from The Federalist, it’s playing out as a replay of the NeverTrump playbook.
The Federalist’s piece, published this week, argues that the same voices who opposed Trump in 2016 — deriding his immigration policy as xenophobic, his trade stance as protectionist, and his foreign policy as isolationist — are now painting Vance as a “right-wing socialist” and a member of the “woke right.” Their goal, the article contends, is not to debate policy but to reclaim the Republican Party once Trump is gone.
Vance’s ‘Crime’
The latest round of attacks was triggered by Vance’s comments during an interview last week on Fox News’ The Will Cain Show. Asked about the primary successes of several Democratic Socialists of America-affiliated candidates who’ve been selling voters on socialism as a cure for affordability woes, Vance responded: “You don’t stop socialism by throwing slogans at people about the free market. You stop socialism by making people’s lives better.”
That single sentence set off a firestorm. Conservative commentators including Ben Shapiro and Erick Erickson rushed to condemn Vance, accusing him of caving to progressive economics. Shapiro posted a lengthy defense of “process neutralism” and free markets, while Erickson wrote an essay suggesting Vance believes low prices are a bad thing and that America needs a strongman to manage its decline.
Others piled on with the epithet “right-wing socialist,” and some dug up old clips of Vance proposing to tax Ivy League endowments or seize the assets of left-wing NGOs — presented as evidence of his alleged radicalism.
What’s Really Driving the Attacks
According to The Federalist, these attacks are less about ideology and more about political turf. The real motivation, the article argues, is restoring the GOP to its pre-Trump configuration. If Vance sounds populist, that’s “socialism.” If he talks about the common good — a concept that once united American political leaders — he’s on the “woke right.” If he suggests refocusing foreign policy on the Western Hemisphere, that’s “isolationist.”
Notably, the piece points out that Trump’s top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have voiced similar stances on these issues without drawing the same neoconservative fire. The inconsistency, it suggests, reveals the attacks on Vance as personal and political rather than substantive.
Are Critics Ignoring Real Problems?
The Federalist piece also pushes back on the notion that Vance’s concerns are unfounded. It cites recent commentary from Inez Stepman in National Review, who noted that the biggest financial stressors on middle-class families — housing, healthcare, education, and childcare — aren’t captured by traditional economic indicators and have been rising faster than inflation and wages for decades.
The article argues that dismissing affordability concerns with slogans about free markets is a losing strategy. It points to polling showing a majority of Americans under 50 doubt the American Dream is still achievable, and to data indicating that half of 18-to-29-year-olds are living with their parents — the highest share since the Great Depression. Another 47 percent of that age group receive financial help from outside their households to cover basic expenses.
A Rigged Market, Not a Free One
Vance’s jab at those who “throw slogans about the free market” struck a nerve, the piece argues, because the U.S. economy in many sectors is not a genuine free market but a rigged one — full of moral hazard, overregulation, and manufactured scarcity in the industries hitting families hardest.
Terry Schilling, writing in The Federalist, put it bluntly: “You are not a socialist for noticing that young people and families are being priced out of the economy in large parts of America, and you are not a socialist for wanting to fix these problems. You are closer to a socialist if you defend the present system that redistributes trillions every year to people and institutions that have not earned it.”
The piece also dismisses the idea that simply labeling Vance a socialist will work politically. It cites data showing that record numbers of Americans feel left behind by the current economic system — a system that, the article argues, Shapiro and other critics have spent years championing.
Immigration’s Role
Another factor driving middle-class economic anxiety, according to The Federalist, is mass legal immigration, particularly the H-1B visa program. Labor Department data through the third quarter of the current fiscal year showed employers filled more than 830,000 positions with foreign workers on H-1B visas — nearly a third of them in software development roles that could have gone to American tech workers.
Against that backdrop, the article argues, the neoconservative refrain of “free market good, socialism bad” rings hollow. For decades, it says, the Washington establishment has prioritized global corporations and foreign nationals over American families — and noticing that, and demanding government action, does not make you a socialist. It makes you a patriot, the piece concludes.
History Repeating
The Federalist piece ends with a warning: the same people who tried to gaslight the public about Trump in 2016 are now doing the same to Vance. Their ultimate aim, it says, is to take the GOP back — and the public should recognize the pattern.
Whether one agrees with The Federalist’s framing or not, the emerging NeverVance movement is a significant political development, signaling a deepening rift within the Republican Party over its future direction. As Trump’s second term rolls on, the battle over who will inherit the party’s mantle is already underway — and it’s getting personal.
Source: thefederalist.com — https://thefederalist.com/2026/08/19/the-nevertrumpers-are-back-this-time-their-target-is-j-d-vance/