On “Meet the Press” Sunday, Maggie Haberman said the 2028 presidential election may be JD Vance’s to lose—while also suggesting Donald Trump isn’t fully pleased about the idea of someone stepping in next. Haberman and Jonathan Swan discussed why Trump’s aides
JD Vance’s path to the 2028 presidential election may be “to lose,” Maggie Haberman said on “Meet the Press” Sunday—yet the storyline comes with a wrinkle: Donald Trump, according to Haberman’s reading, “doesn’t necessarily thrill” at the prospect of someone coming next.
Haberman framed it as a matter of momentum and internal politics. “I will say, there is nothing in our reporting that suggests that Rubio is doing the things one would be doing to run. And it is still Vance’s to lose,” she said. She added that Trump doesn’t like the idea of “somebody coming next.”
The conversation turned to whether Trump is genuinely worried about Republicans winning midterm elections this fall. When host Ryan Nobles asked Haberman and Jonathan Swan if Trump is truly concerned. Swan pushed back on the idea that Trump doesn’t care at all. Still, he said Trump’s closest people want him to care more.
Swan described it this way: “his closest aides, his top aides wish he cared more.”
He then pointed to a remark Trump made last year after Republicans performed poorly in the off-year elections. Swan quoted Trump saying. “People have been saying they can’t win without Trump on the ballot.” Swan continued that Trump also framed it as “that’s a great honor. ” then urged people to “play that forward a little bit.”.
Swan connected the comment to Trump’s incentives and risk calculus. “He obviously doesn’t want to get impeached again. But at the same time, you know, he’s not going to get convicted. There’s no universe in which he gets convicted,” Swan said.
Nobles then focused on a different kind of friction—how Vance operates around Trump. Vance, he noted, “appears to be someone, at least on some level, willing to tell President Trump things he doesn’t necessarily want to hear.” Haberman called the dynamic “really interesting.”
She pointed to a moment from Trump’s world of decision-making. arguing that Vance was an outlier in how publicly he pushed back. Haberman said that “none of Trump’s senior advisors. none of his Cabinet really thought this was a good idea” regarding the decision to attack Iran. But she said Vance was the only one who “really vocally took issue with this with Trump.”.
In Haberman’s telling, that difference didn’t play out cleanly for Vance. “And it irritated Trump. It cost Vance with Trump. But he was the only person who was really sort of rattling the cages,” she said.
Rubio entered the discussion as well. Nobles noted that Marco Rubio is another of Trump’s potential successors, and Haberman described Trump’s tendency to test and stage-manage the choices. “Trump likes to play games with people,” she said. “That’s not new to anybody.”
Haberman recalled a “whole testing” dynamic in which Trump appears to probe loyalties and preferences—“‘Who do you like?. Do you like Marco or do you like JD Vance?’” she said. She then described a scene she said appears in their book: a dinner with Rupert Murdoch and other people in the Blue Room of the White House last October. with both Vance and Rubio present.
In that account, Haberman said Trump asked Murdoch what he thought. She said Murdoch, who “did not want Vance to be the VP,” replied that “JD has the potential to be great.” When Trump then asked about Marco, Haberman said Murdoch “flatly says, ‘Marco is brilliant.’”
Even with that kind of back-and-forth, Haberman suggested Rubio doesn’t currently look poised to knock Vance off the lead. “But that doesn’t mean Rubio has any real chance of unseating Vance,” she said.
She added: “I don’t know that it needed too much tilting.”
The picture Haberman painted was clear: Vance may have the advantage heading toward 2028, but Trump’s lack of enthusiasm—paired with old tensions over who can challenge him—could shape how comfortable the arrangement feels at every step.
Maggie Haberman JD Vance Donald Trump Meet the Press Jonathan Swan 2028 presidential election Marco Rubio midterm elections Rupert Murdoch Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump attack Iran Blue Room of the White House
So basically Trump’s mad someone else might win in 2028?
I don’t even get why they keep talking about Vance like he’s guaranteed. Didn’t Rubio already do something? Also Trump “isn’t thrilled” sounds like they’re reading tea leaves.
Wait, I thought Vance was already running? Like if Rubio isn’t “doing the things” to run then why is everyone always posting Rubio stuff. And Haberman saying “momentum” but Trump not thrilled… that’s just politics right? Feels like people are trying to force a storyline.
This article makes it sound like Trump is scared of losing momentum midterms, but he also “won’t be convicted”?? That part makes no sense to me. Like what does impeachment have to do with Vance stepping in, unless the whole plan is to keep Trump on the ballot forever? I’m just confused why they’re quoting last year like it proves anything now.