When War Crimes Become Policy: J.D. Vance, Trump, and the New Right | First Draft
September 8, 2025
1,213
132
17
12.28%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Lincoln Square Episodes Around September 8, 2025
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
36:06Now PlayingWhen War Crimes Become Policy: J.D. Vance, Trump, and the New Right | First Draft
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelTom Hanks isn’t exactly the face of radical politics, yet Susan points out how even he’s become a target with West Point refusing to honor him. She remembers his Saturday Night Live reassurance after Trump won his first term back in 2016 — it’s all going to be OK — and how hollow it felt even then. “Sure, Mr. Multimillionaire, of course you’re going to be OK. I don’t know about the rest of us,” she recalls. With ICE agents pulling people off the streets and Trump threatening to invade more American cities, that moment now reads like a warning about who gets to feel safe and who doesn’t.
Sam insists the bigger danger is cultural, not legislative. “We inculturate our children as they grow up,” he says, and when success is measured by how completely you dominate your peers, “we are screwed.” That dominance mindset, Sam argues, has been decades in the making — a shift from Reagan-era greed to today’s narcissism. What it produces isn’t just bad leaders but an electorate conditioned to see cruelty as strength.
That’s the backdrop for Susan calling out J.D. Vance’s applause for an attack in Venezuela that killed 11 people: “That’s summary execution … forget the Geneva Convention.” She connects the dots to Putin in Ukraine and Netanyahu in Gaza, where fire-first logic has become normalized. Sam adds, “All of this is just war crime material,” making clear that what’s being tested abroad is also the playbook at home. Vance’s bravado isn’t about policy — it’s about staking a claim in Trump’s shadow.
Susan doesn’t buy the idea that Vance can inherit Trump’s movement by posturing. She notes his ties to Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin, but stresses that MAGA never fully trusted him. “He is a great ass-kisser,” she says, but everyone remembers him once calling Trump “America’s Hitler.” For Susan, that spells factional chaos on the right, and for Sam, it’s a reminder that Democrats can’t treat this like politics as usual — because filling a power vacuum with dominance alone is a recipe for disaster.
Take a look at the Week Ahead with Susan J. Demas and Sam Osterhout
Join the Lincoln Square community on Substack today for unparalleled insights, expert commentary, and news from your favorite prodemocracy voices. Subscribe for free at
Subscribe to Lincoln Square on YouTube
Buy official prodemocracy merch and protest gear at the Lincoln Square shop. Use code YOUTUBE for 15% off. Shop here
--Support independent media and help inform disengaged Americans. Every $10 reaches 1,000 voters with the facts: Donate here via Act Blue:
---Stay connected by following Lincoln Square on your (or tolerated) social media platforms:
TikTok: tiktok.com/@resolutesquare
YouTube: @ResoluteSquare
Substack: lincolnsquare.media
#LincolnSquare #FirstDrafts #JDVance #TrumpPolitics #WarCrimes #Venezuela #GenevaConvention #SusanJDemas #SamOsterhout #MAGA #CulturalDanger #AmericanDemocracy #Putin #Netanyahu #DominanceCulture #CrueltyIsntStrength #FactionalChaos #ProDemocracy #MediaAnalysis #PoliticalCommentary
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.