Vice President JD Vance isn’t so sure that the president will have his back in the 2028 election.
The 42-year-old is theoretically supposed to be Donald Trump’s right-hand man and political successor. Yet nearly two years into Trump’s second administration, the two still aren’t on the same page. In a sit-down interview with conservative commentator Mark Halperin on Air Force Two Monday, the vice president didn’t seem so confident that he would definitely obtain Trump’s endorsement.
Halperin posed two questions to Vance: first, if he planned to run for president, and second, if he would “definitely” obtain Trump’s endorsement.
“I’ll tell you Mark that I’m focused on the midterm elections and I want to get as many good Republicans elected in early November as possible,” Vance said.
“Look, I really have not made up my mind about what to do in 2028, I really haven’t focused on it,” he continued. “You and I have talked about that. Look, I think if I run, the president will endorse me.”
“Right away? Right at the beginning?” pressed Halperin. “In other words, the day you announce. He’d endorse you, right?”
“I don’t know, man, I haven’t talked to him about it,” Vance laughed.
“It would be kind of weird though if you said, ‘Mr. President, I’m going to run,’ and he said, ‘Let me think about it,’” Halperin said.
But Vance equivocated.
“No, it wouldn’t be weird,” Vance said. “I think I’d get his endorsement, but I also think there’s something to be said for people actually running their own race. And because the president’s endorsement is so dispositive, you could absolutely see a scenario where the president says, ‘You know what, we need to let this race play out and not preemptively prejudge the results.’”
“Sometimes media scrutiny, pressure, policy goals—” Vance continued before Halperin interjected that he “might be horrible at it.”
“I would be terrible at it,” Vance said. “So I don’t know, having never spoken to the president about this, I can’t speak to his psychology on it. But my attitude is, if I run, I think the president will endorse me. But I also haven’t talked to him about it.”