Posted on 05/30/2026 9:44:11 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
In recent conversations with aides and allies, President Trump often interjects with a question about his vice president: Does JD Vance have what it takes to go all the way?
He usually answers his own question: He’s not so sure.
It is not that Mr. Trump is abandoning Mr. Vance. He involves him in major decisions, has given him high-profile opportunities to position himself for 2028 and trusts the 41-year-old vice president to wage partisan warfare on his behalf. In a cabinet meeting this week, Mr. Trump compared Mr. Vance to Eliot Ness, the mob-busting federal agent, for working to ferret out fraud in mostly Democratic controlled states.
Mr. Trump has long conducted running focus groups on his closest aides, and appears to enjoy needling them and keeping them off balance as a way of asserting his dominance. Several people in the president’s inner circle have been subject to his quasi-public questioning of their performance and their future.
But when it comes to Mr. Vance, the stakes are higher. As the default front-runner for the Republican nomination and would-be inheritor of the president’s political movement, Mr. Vance’s fortunes ride to a substantial degree on the enthusiasm of the support he gets from Mr. Trump. And Mr. Trump’s regular polling of people on whether they prefer Mr. Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio has become one of the most closely watched early indicators of how power in the Republican Party might pass to the next generation.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’d go for Hegseth. Maybe Tulsi.
Rubio always has been pro-amnesty, and I assume he still is.
Vance seems OK, but it’s too tight with the Tucker crowd.
Oh, good grief!! If I’d know this was NYTimes drivel, I don’t even open it up.
Don’t be fooled by the NYTimes BS attempt to divide and conqure.
JD, of course.
Check
LOL. So true.
Yes, the NYTimes is like most median and university polls: They don’t reflect fact & public opinion, they try to direct the conversation and opinion.
I don’t see much of a choice between Rubio, Vance, and DeSantis.
Two former senators, two Yale guys, and all three Catholics.
None of three have enough MAGA DNA to resist being bought and paid for by the Republican wing of the uniparty.
Was hoping for Tulsi but that looks out the window now.
It has nothing to do with “MAGA DNA” and everything to do with money. Unless there is another patriotic billionaire clown (and I mean that in a very positive light) out there who is willing to jump into the national political scene, you’re never going to find the perfect person to succeed Trump.
Are you EVER going to give up on your MAGA Derangement Syndrome jihad against the RESTORATION OF AMERICAN GREATNESS?
Trump’s money freed him up.
But the Trump rally phenomenon had little to do with money although one could argue it had a lot to do with celebrity and his reality TV presence.
Trump captured populist and anti-establishment themes.
Bloomberg’s billions got him nothing because the only crowd he could draw were flies.
The wild card here could be Musk.
He’s smart enough not to run.
But has a got a gazillon dollars to throw at a candidate if he chose to.
And Musk like Trump would like nothing better than to disrupt the status quo which is the uniparty swamp.
“ The wild card here could be Musk.
He’s smart enough not to run.”
************************************
Since he’s not a natural born citizen he wouldn’t be CONSTITUTIONALLY eligible.
Pretty sure Musk was born in South Africa!
He wrote his drug dealing B-I-L a letter of recommendation to get his real estate license when he was the majority whip in the Florida house of representatives.
Rubio did not disclose their familial relationship in the letter, stating only that he had known Cicilia for over 25 years.
If the NYT is against him, who could not be for him? The left hates Trump so much they’re about to blow a gasket. President Hillbilly Marine would be the death blow. Although as far as I’m concerned any non-RINO non-Dem would be fine.
Of course you’re right.
But it didn’t stop Daddy Romney.
Nor Rafael Jr.
Consider the source.
Yes!
Agree. JD has failed to impress.
Repeating yourself again? And you won't be able to justify this any more than the first time you posted it.
Not to mention how often the things you post have no resemblance to reality and you are questioning someone else's intelligence?
Not everyone can be as smart as Chris Christie, what is he doing now days?
Also, DeSantis has the balls to do what’s right instead of polling based actions.
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