JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<ul>
<li class="latestnewsfooterCol">tests this</li>
    <li class="latestnewsfooterCol"><p>a very long text</p></li>
</ul>

JavaScript

$(function() {
    $('li.latestnewsfooterCol').each(function() {
        var $this = $(this);
        $this.text( $this.text().slice(0,5) );        
    });
});