JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<section class="row featured">
        <div class="column four comment">
            <img src="images/gallery/gallery-1.jpg" alt="">
            <div class="content">
                <h2>Lorem Ipsum</h2>
                <p class="limit">Aliquam dolor odio, porta id mollis ullamcorper, imperdiet sit amet odio. In eleifend dapibus massa ac aliquam. Nullam vulputate lectus ac nunc molestie mollis.</p>
                <button class="more align-right"><p class="highlight">Read more</p></button>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="column four comment">
            <img src="images/gallery/gallery-3.jpg" alt="">
            <div class="content">
                <h2>Lorem Ipsum</h2>
                <p class="limit">Aliquam dolor odio, porta id mollis ullamcorper, imperdiet sit amet odio. In eleifend dapibus massa ac aliquam. Nullam vulputate lectus ac nunc molestie mollis.</p>
                <button class="more align-right"><p class="highlight">Read more</p></button>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div class="column four comment">
            <img src="images/gallery/gallery-2.jpg" alt="">
            <div class="content">
                <h2>Lorem Ipsum</h2>
                <p class="limit">Aliquam dolor odio, porta id mollis ullamcorper, imperdiet sit amet odio. In eleifend dapibus massa ac aliquam. Nullam vulputate lectus ac nunc molestie mollis.</p>
                <button class="more align-right"><p class="highlight">Read more</p></button>
            </div>
        </div>
</section>

JavaScript

$('.limit').each(function(){
    $(this).data('content', $(this).text())
    $(this).data('limit', $(this).text().substring(0, 40))
    $(this).text( $(this).data('limit'))
})
 

    $('.more').click(function() { 

        var $this = $(this);
        var elP = $this.siblings('p');
        var length = elP.text().length;

        if(length == 40){

            elP.text(elP.data('content'));

        }
        else {
            elP.text(elP.data('limit'));
        }

    });