With the midterm elections now over, attention turns to the 2028 presidential race, which will feature an open race for both parties. It’s widely assumed that Vice President JD Vance will run for the Republicans, although President Donald Trump said this week that his veep might not run after all.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he had spoken to Vance, especially after Vance’s post-election social media statement that blamed the loss primarily on the Iran war. When asked if they had talked about 2028, Trump answered that they had talked about a lot of things.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump told the reporters. “You don’t know who’s talking about running. Maybe a lot of people running, maybe nobody’s gonna run. Maybe he won’t run; I don’t know who’s gonna run. But I can tell you that as far as that war is concerned, I would’ve done nothing different.”
Trump on JD Vance: “Maybe he won’t run” https://t.co/tRgmtAE3Yu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 4, 2026
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Trump, throughout the last two years, has stopped short of endorsing Vance, or anyone else, as his successor as Republican standard-bearer. Vance has also not said that he will certainly run for president.
But if he does run, Vance will have to contend with the Iran war, and having been part of the administration that launched it with him in the room, even if Vance distanced himself from that war on the morning after the election loss.
The Council on Foreign Relations wrote Wednesday about the early days of the 2028 presidential race. It’s rare, the author noted, for a sitting vice president to not run to succeed a president who’s not running again.
“The bad news for Vance is that sitting vice presidents seldom win the presidency. Only four of them have been elected president, and only one in the past 190 years—the elder Bush in 1988. Incumbency does not convey much of an advantage to sitting vice presidents,” the analysis said. “Vice presidents seeking to move into the Oval Office need to establish themselves as their own person, especially if the public is happy to see the incumbent president go. But distancing oneself from the president comes at a risk. ”
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
