Just eight months after President Trump picked JD Vance to be his vice president, Vance is already positioned to be MAGA's heir apparent for 2028.
Many of Trump's longest-serving aides and most fervent supporters now see the vice president as the vehicle to lock in Trump's worldview for at least the next decade
In their view, Trump broke the old Republican Party — and Vance can finish building the new one.
Vance has won over Trump's base with combative public performances, by savvily managing relationships with Trump's team, and by showing unwavering fealty to Trump's vision.
A person close to Donald Trump Jr. — who has been a key Vance validator going back to Vance's 2022 Senate race in Ohio — told Axios the president's son is "over the moon with JD's performance so far, and feels completely vindicated for spending his political capital last summer pushing his dad to pick Vance as vice president." Vance has also impressed financial moguls in Trump's orbit.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February, Vance easily won a straw poll of potential 2028 GOP nominees with 61%. Steve Bannon — an official in Trump's first White House, who now presides over the powerful "War Room" podcast — came in a distant second with 12%.
Even some Vance boosters concede he doesn't have the showmanship that made Trump a reality TV star and political phenomenon.
Posted by John3262005
10 Comments
Gross
People aren’t going to like JD Vance. Just give it time.
Famously, anointed frontrunners with large polling leads multiple years before the primary are pretty much a lock for the nomination.
JD Vance is a blatant fascist. His best friends and main philosophical influences believe nations fail because the people are not fit for anything but slavery. They believe America should conquer failed nations such as Haiti and Afghanistan and make their citizens slaves, and that doing so would improve the lives of everyone involved. He is a genuinely evil person, and it is incredible to me that nobody in the media or any politician wants to call him out directly on any of this.
Vance might pull the base but he has the charisma of a burlap sack.
And this is why Vance went this route instead of sticking to how he was around 2016. Dude sucks but he knows how to appeal to the rubes and correctly saw this path as his best way to power
Also lol at Steve Bannon coming in 2nd. I swear they’re trying to be as unserious as possible
The Republic is saved
Trump is running in 2028, either as the nom or in a VP role.
JD Vance, who chooses to be fat
That’ll be interesting when Trump tries to anoint himself for 2028