The clash couldn’t have been scripted any better.

The occasion was Vice President J.D. Vance’s first interview since taking office, a sit-down with Margaret Brennan of CBS News. The anchor pressed him on the White House pause of refugee resettlement operations, reminding Vance of his past support for admitting into the country those who were “properly vetted.” The vice president replied that the efficacy of the entire screening process was in doubt, pointing to an Afghan national recently arrested for plotting a terror attack in Oklahoma as an example.

The subsequent crescendo launched a thousand memes and highlight reels on the right that one giddy conservative pundit compared to the coverage Michael Jordan got on ESPN during his prime.

“It wasn’t clear if he was radicalized when he got here,” Brennan started to say of the terror suspect who came to the United States after the Afghanistan withdrawal and several rounds of vetting. “I don’t really care, Margaret,” interrupted Vance. This was the mic drop moment the White House wanted.

He was sworn in earlier last week, but during the CBS News interview, if Vance hadn’t already, the vice president cemented himself within MAGA hearts. A cult of personality is now emerging around President Trump’s ascendant Hillbilly Apprentice.

Conservative columnist Salena Zito likened the exchange with Brennan to Rhett Butler’s famous line from “Gone With the Wind,” explaining that it gave “‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ vibes.” The conservative corners of the internet agreed and shared the exchange far and wide. “At what point,” asked a gleeful Donald Trump Jr, “will these leftwing media hacks figure out that they’re no match for JD?” The interview attracted more than 1.3 million views on YouTube, where it was number one on trending the next day.

This was the kind of rollout that the Trump campaign imagined when the president picked him last summer, making him the heir-apparent of the MAGA movement overnight. Vance, then the junior senator from Ohio, had barely been in office for 18 months. He didn’t appeal to constituencies that Trump didn’t already have. Out of the gate, Democrats launched a campaign to label him “weird,” his favorability numbers went negative, and the press had a field day amplifying private comments rather........

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