President Donald Trump declined to anoint his vice president as the heir apparent to the Republican Party or his Make America Great Again movement, saying in an interview that aired on Monday that it’s too early for such an endorsement.
Asked by Fox News reporter Bret Baier during a one-on-one interview if he views Vice President JD Vance as his natural successor, the term-limited president balked before quickly pivoting to the current administration.
“No, but he’s very capable,” Trump said of Vance in a short clip shared online Monday.
Vance, 40, the first millennial in U.S. history to hold the vice presidency, is seen as a front-runner for the next GOP primary contest. Pressed about his 2028 plans within the first days of the returning Trump administration, Vance replied, “We’ll see what happens come 2028.”
A recent survey of GOP voters found if the primary were held now, Vance would be the top choice to take the presidential nomination with 27% of those polled saying they would back the former Ohio senator.
The president’s oldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., 47, is also among those who is seen as a potential contender for Republicans. That same poll showed 21% of Republicans wanting Don Jr. to be the 2028 nominee for president.
Trump Jr. quipped “don’t get me into trouble” when asked last month about polls showing him among the possible contenders, for instance.
Others on the 2028 GOP short list, according to the survey of roughly 500 Republicans, include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and current Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I think you have a lot of capable people,” Trump said in the interview, part of which aired ahead of the Super Bowl on Sunday.
When Baier mentioned how quickly the political calendar will turn to the 2026 mid-terms – and that Vance will likely seek his support for the next presidential race – Trump immediately turned back to the work his administration is doing.
“A lot of people have said this has been the greatest opening… in the history of the presidency,” Trump said.
Trump plays with third term talk
Trump didn’t avoid presidential politics the last time he was in the White House. Back in January 2017, he announced his re-election days within first taking office when he first unveiled a “Keep America Great Again” slogan.
Now serving a second term, Trump hasn’t totally given up on the idea of seeking a third term, which has he played around with publicly.
The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution bars anyone from being elected president “more than twice,” and Trump has already been elected twice, first in 2016 and again in 2024.
Last April, he told Time Magazine that he would retire after his second term because “I don’t really have a choice,” and that he would not support changing the 22nd Amendment. But during the National Prayer Breakfast last month Trump tossed out the idea again, saying: “They say I can’t run again; that’s the expression. Then somebody said, I don’t think you can. Oh.”
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., proposed a constitutional amendment in January that would allow for a president to serve three terms if their first two were nonconsecutive.
The measure is considered a long-shot by most constitutional experts given it would need to pass through 38 of 50 state legislatures, as well both chambers of U.S. Congress with a two-thirds majority. Republicans do not have margins that large in either chamber, but that hasn’t stopped liberal critics from slamming the idea as further proof that fealty to Trump has overtaken the GOP.
