Vice President JD Vance brushed aside a question on Wednesday over why President Donald Trump has so far declined to endorse him for a 2028 White House bid.
Vance, in an interview with the Daily Mail, laughed off questions over the president saying he wouldn’t name the vice president as his pick to succeed him, saying it was too early for Trump to do so.
“I think he said exactly what he should have said, which is, ‘It’s too early,’” Vance said, noting further that he’s not focused on politics for the moment.
“There will be a time to focus on politics, of course — [like] the midterms. … So let’s do a good job and then worry about the midterms,” Vance, a former GOP senator from Ohio, added. “And then we’ll worry about presidential politics at the appropriate time.”
During a pre-Super Bowl interview, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Trump if he saw his vice president as the eventual 2028 presidential nominee.
“No, but he’s very capable,” Trump said. “I think you have a lot of very capable people. So far, I think he’s doing a very fantastic job,” the president added. “It’s too early; we’re just starting.”
This month, Vance traveled to Europe, where he delivered his first major speech on the international stage, where he rightfully accused European leaders of suppressing opposing viewpoints. In addition to this, he has been assigned the responsibility of overseeing a potential TikTok deal, coordinating hurricane recovery efforts in the U.S., and has played a key role in securing support from swing-vote Republicans for some of the president’s more controversial nominees.
Vance emerged as the clear frontrunner to succeed President Trump within the MAGA movement, according to a new straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, The Hill reported.
Sixty-one percent of the 1,022 attendees at CPAC expressed support for Vance as the future GOP nominee. Former Trump adviser and right-wing media personality Steve Bannon received 12 percent of the vote, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis garnered 7 percent.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump’s UN ambassador nominee Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) each garnered three percent support. Other notable figures, including Donald Trump Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Vivek Ramaswamy (who is expected to launch a gubernatorial bid in Ohio next week), received two percent support each.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (R), Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Trump’s former GOP presidential primary rival Nikki Haley each earned one percent support. Four percent of respondents remained undecided.
The CPAC straw poll was conducted by Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin. The same survey showed Trump with a 99 percent approval rating.
Earlier this month, Vance sent another warning to “rogue” federal judges who he feels are abusing their authority to improperly impede President Donald Trump as head of the Executive Branch.
So far, the courts have blocked Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal grants, and overhaul federal agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Last week, the administration faced another setback when a federal judge temporarily restricted Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Treasury Department’s extensive federal payment system, which holds sensitive information about millions of Americans, ABC News reported.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance said over the weekend, per ABC.
Trump was asked about Vance’s comments and his court setbacks.
“When a president can’t look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don’t have a country anymore,” Trump told reporters. “So, we’re very disappointed, but with the judges that would make such a ruling. But we have a long way to go.”
“No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision,” the president added. “It’s a disgrace.”