I get it — it seems like President Donald Trump has been in office for a long time. Never, at least in living memory, has any president accomplished so much so quickly. Few would have thought it possible to get this much done in three weeks. But that’s leading some people to start leaning too far forward in the foxhole. Case in point: In his recent pre-recorded video with President Trump, Fox News’s Bret Baier asked a curious question.
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Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier asked Trump, 78, in an interview taped ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl: “Do you view Vice President JD Vance as your successor, the Republican nominee in 2028?”
“No, but he’s very capable,” Trump replied.
“I think you have a lot of very capable people,” the president added. “So far I think he’s doing a fantastic job. It’s too early. We’re just starting.”
“By the time we get to get to the midterms,” Baier interjected, “[Vance] is going to be looking for an endorsement.”
While not an outright endorsement, it’s not a dismissal, either. The president and vice president appear to have an excellent working relationship, unlike the previous holders of those positions. They campaigned together, and they appeared to have a solid chemistry. JD Vance is a MAGA Republican with the zeal of the convert and, by all accounts, would be a great president — one day.
So why did the president demur? President Trump can’t run again. His VP is, as he points out, very capable. Why not offer a full-throated endorsement?
See Related: WATCH: Trump Hilariously Roasts a Reporter on Air Force One Over Accusation Against JD Vance
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Well, let’s take a deep breath and think about this for a moment.
It’s possible that Trump chose not to endorse Vance as his successor to avoid calling attention to the fact that he is constitutionally obligated to leave office when he completes his second term in January 2029.
Trump frequently muses about changing the Constitution to serve a third term, but that’s understood partially as a way to avoid obtaining “lame duck” status that could sap his political power.
While those are possibilities — that second one being an impossibility, as there is essentially zero chance of a constitutional amendment being proposed, voted on, and ratified by November of 2028 — I think the main reason may be much simpler, and I can illustrate that with the answer that I would have given Bret Baier, were I in the president’s shoes:
“What? Seriously? We’ve been in office for three weeks. We’ve been playing Whack-a-Mole with the bureaucracy, getting the border under control, and getting the Cabinet approved, along with a million other things. What in the world makes you think we’re even worrying about 2028 yet?”
Add to that the fact that JD Vance hasn’t even indicated if he’s interested in running yet. Oh, he likely will; it’s the usual form. And he’d make a good president. But in 2028, there will be a primary, and if the vice president runs, he’ll face challenges, not least of which will be from a certain guy from Florida. He may decide to wait; he’s young. He may go for it, hoping for his former boss’s support, which (barring some calamity) I would expect he’ll get. But it’s just way too early to worry about this now. That, rather than any trouble in Camelot, is probably the reason for President Trump’s non-answer.
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In 2028, it’s a near certainty that President Trump will endorse and work to elect whoever the GOP nominates, whether it be JD Vance, Ron DeSantis, or someone else — unless that someone else’s name is Cheney, Kinzinger, or Romney. In that case, we’ve got bigger problems.
