We are back with a great collection of clips.
In this roundup, senior editor Berny Belvedere examines how JD Vance is laying claim to Trump’s movement by courting its most hardcore populist voters, and what that tells us about where the post-Trump right is headed. Don’t forget to read Thomas Shull’s survey report on this very theme!
We also have Francis Fukuyama’s fantastic distillation of everything that is wrong with the right’s view of the “deep state.” We published the full video and transcript of the LibCon2026 panel Frank participated on, “The State of the Union: Authoritarian Consolidation in the U.S.,” in our pages. Check that out!
Also in this roundup is Renee DiResta’s brilliant encapsulation of how diehard anti-vaccine activists exploited and hijacked the Covid moment to advance their longstanding antivax goals. The full Zooming In conversation between Renée and Berny Belvedere is here.
Did you hear that The UnPopulist turned five years old? We’re officially older than a single presidential term! If you missed the video clip we prepared sharing our mission and vision built out of the themes we explored at LibCon2026, we’ve added it to this roundup below. Please give it a watch.
Last but not least, we have a teaser for a very special conversation dropping tomorrow.
For more videos from The UnPopulist, go here: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram.
JD Vance has positioned himself as the natural heir to Trump’s movement, and he’s building that claim on the most hardcore, populist faction within MAGA’s coalition. That strategy should worry anyone hoping the post-Trump right will be any saner than the current one. That discussion we’ve all been having about whether Trumpism can outlast Trump? If JD Vance is the heir apparent, a fully robust Trumpism will indeed live on.
Few right-wing worries run deeper than the one about the “deep state,” the idea that a shadowy cadre of unaccountable bureaucrats is secretly thwarting the will of the people. At LibCon2026 this past July, Francis Fukuyama took that story apart, and epxlained how it actually gets the federal workforce basically entirely wrong.
For decades, vaccine conspiracists peddled their junk science from the fringes, to an audience made up of a committed few. Then a pandemic arrived and handed them millions of frightened people desperate for answers. Renée DiResta shows how these grifters and cranks—RFK Jr. among them—used that fear to advance their antivax stance into the mainstream.
In case you missed it: to mark our fifth birthday, we put together a quick video, using themes and moments from LibCon2026, to convey our mission and vision going forward.
But wait, there’s more! Tomorrow, we’re dropping a brand new Zooming In conversation between editor-in-chief Shikha Dalmia and Radley Balko, one of the country’s sharpest chroniclers of police and criminal-justice abuses. Here’s a teaser clip. Look for that convo tomorrow!
© The UnPopulist, 2026
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I’m sensing a theme in this set of picks: cynicism. The MAGA movement is extremely effective in convincing its followers that nobody else can be trusted. The contrived story is that government workers, health care workers, scientists, and many other categories of people not highlighted in this set of video clips, are all actively working against our best interests.
It’s essentially a form of conspiracism, but it’s served up in a way that is palatable to people who normally would reject conspiracy theories.
Cynicism is a marvelously effective propaganda approach. Actually trusting an institution requires both cognitive energy and courage. In contrast, uninformed criticism is marvelously easy, but this intellectually laziness cloaks itself with a superficial veneer of sophistication.
Actually I kind of like the idea of Vance being anointed as the MAGA heir apparent.
Historically VPs have a difficult time immediately succeeding the Presidents they served. Its the double bind of not being able to separate oneself from the unpopular policies of their boss without looking like they are disloyal (this is especially true with Trump) or looking like outright hypocrites.
At the same time they have no real accomplishments of their own beyond supporting what the POTUS accomplished.
Add to this Vance is an uncharismatic dweeb, who like Ron Desantis, isn't likable to start with and registers as fake in a way that Trump does not. Trump is funny (in a goofball way) and entertaining and because his lies are so fabulous they sometimes don't even register as lies but just quirky/zany things to say.