President Donald Trump said Tuesday it is too early to endorse Vice President JD Vance for a potential 2028 presidential run, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the focus right now needs to be on this year’s midterm elections.
“Well, I’ll tell you this — he’s a very talented person, and he’s a very good person, but we’ve literally, I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it,” Trump said.
Vance, standing nearby, agreed. “No sir,” he said. “I said that too.”
Trump continued, “You know, who would believe that? I don’t talk about it with him, he doesn’t talk about it. It’s early. We are very early right now. We have to get through the midterms, we’ll see how it goes.”
The comments came a day after Vance told journalist Mark Halperin that he expected Trump would endorse him if he decided to run for president in 2028. Asked whether he thought Trump would back him “right away” after a campaign launch, Vance said, “I would think so, but I don’t know, man. I haven’t talked to him about it.”
When Halperin asked if it would be “weird” for Trump to withhold an endorsement, Vance said he didn’t think so.
“I mean, again, I think I would get his endorsement, but I also think there is something to be said for people actually running their own race. And because the president’s endorsement is so dispositive, you could absolutely see a scenario where the president says, ‘You know what? We need to let this race play out and not, like, preemptively pre-judge the results.'”
Vance also told Halperin he has not made up his mind about running in 2028, saying, “I just haven’t focused on it.” He added that the scrutiny and pressure of a presidential campaign could be difficult for him to handle.
“Like sometimes you know media scrutiny, pressure, policy. I can be terrible at it… so I don’t know,” Vance said.
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