Vice President JD Vance tried defending President Donald Trump's tone by describing it as in line with the working class, and it backfired.
The New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat asked Vance about the tone of Trump and the administration, saying that it "is not consistently a Christian tone. There is a tone of aggressive uncharity."
Vance responded that "tonal arguments are ways of, frankly, policing working-class ways of communication and covering them in elite preferences."
However, online commentators expressed offense at hearing Vance equate the Trump administration's tone with the way the working class speaks.
Tim Miller, the host of The Bulwark podcast, summarized Vance's defense as "Working class people are all a— who don't care about their neighbor's feelings" in a post on X.
"It seems like he thinks that regular people are all sociopaths like him," Miller wrote. "Classic"
MS NOW host and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough said, "How insulting to suggest that hateful rhetoric that runs counter to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is just the way working class people talk—and that elites don’t get that."
"What an absurd response," Reason reporter Billy Binion sounded off. "Donald Trump is not 'working class.' And this is very condescending toward people who actually *are* working class because it implies they're all mean and uncharitable by default. Is that all the respect JD Vance has for working people?"
Journalist Jane Coaston, the host of What A Day, agreed, "I really think some people think that working class Americans are the worst human beings to ever live."
Christian broadcaster Erick Erickson simply said, "Bad answer."