Vice President JD Vance has created distance between himself and President Donald Trump ahead of a likely 2028 presidential bid. Trump doesn’t seem to mind. At least not yet.
Through leaks and public comments, Vance has made it clear that he opposed the Iran war. Unlike Trump, Vance didn’t endorse Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his recent election.
After Republicans got obliterated on Election Day, Vance on X cited the Iran war as the main reason why Republicans lost the House and Senate. Asked about Vance’s analysis, Trump on Wednesday said it was “largely true.” But as the 2028 race intensifies, it is unclear whether Vance can thread the needle and distance himself from the unpopular president while not triggering his wrath.
In 2024, then-President Joe Biden told then-Vice President and 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris on multiple occasions that she should stick by him and his policies.
VANCE BLAMES IRAN WAR FOR GOP MIDTERM BLOWOUT
The evening before the 2024 debate between Harris and Trump, Biden called his vice president to remind her not to distance herself from him.
“No daylight, kid,” Biden said, according to the book Fight written by journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. Harris abided by her boss’s wishes, and it significantly hurt her campaign for the White House.
Even though Trump is extremely protective of his political standing, he knows how to win presidential contests, though less so midterm elections. Trump cost his party seats by making himself the center of attention in the 2026 elections, and maybe he’ll learn from the massive rebuke voters delivered on Nov. 3. He also is very focused on his legacy, which will be affected one way or the other by who succeeds him.
In many ways, the 2028 election will be about Trump. Will he have the patience to let Vance stray from the Trump record? What if Vance reveals details in media interviews about how Trump didn’t listen to his advice on the Iran war? What if Vance on the campaign trail backs away from his prior statement that Trump is the “best president of his lifetime”? Will Trump let criticism of his administration roll off his back? And for how long?
Trump has said recently he hasn’t talked privately with Vance about a 2028 bid and indicated it’s too early to talk about endorsing his vice president. On Wednesday, Trump said he wasn’t sure Vance will run.
Like Trump, Vance is a different type of Republican. He has taken on Reagan Republicans by criticizing the former president’s economic guru Milton Friedman. His populist policies have attracted concern among business leaders, and he, similar to Trump, has considered increasing personal income taxes on the wealthy. These stances have caused deep concern about Vance in some powerful GOP circles, though Vance supporters maintain the GOP isn’t going back to the party it was before Trump became commander-in-chief.
There is no doubt that Vance has been a team player. The 42-year-old vice president was a constant on the 2026 campaign trail, serving as the GOP finance chair while defending the president — notably on the Iran war and tariffs.
Yet, Vance’s social media post on the war triggered some Republicans to suggest Vance was being disloyal.
Meanwhile, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Fox News Thursday that the blue tsunami will cause more Republicans to jump into the 2028 presidential race.
Newt Gingrich, another former GOP House speaker, stated on X that the race for the Republican presidential nomination is “wide open.” Gingrich added the effort to “draft Secretary of State Marco Rubio is staggering” and also name-checked Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR).
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
