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Vice President JD Vance said he isn’t sure if he’d receive President Donald Trump’s endorsement “right out the gate” if he were to run for president in 2028.
Vance expressed that uncertainty during a Monday interview with journalist Mark Halperin on his platform 2Way. The interview aired just weeks before the midterm elections, as Republicans and the White House are focused on maintaining control of Congress.
Vance emphasized that his top priority was the midterms and said he wasn’t certain that a 2028 presidential run was in his future.
However, he said, “I think if I run, the president will endorse me.”
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Vice President JD Vance points to President Donald Trump at the Republican convention Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026, in Dallas. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
“Right away?” Halperin asked.
“I would think so, but I don’t know, man,” Vance said. “I haven’t talked to him about it.”
Halperin suggested it might be “weird” if Vance were to share with Trump his 2028 ambitions and for Trump to sit on an endorsement, a characterization that Vance pushed back on.
“No, I don’t think it’d be weird,” Vance said. “Again, I think I would get his endorsement, but I also think there’s 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, like, this race play out and not, like, preemptively prejudge the results.'”
Earlier in the conversation, Halperin brought up previous remarks by Vance in which he said that “whoever the president endorses for the Republican nomination will ultimately win the Republican primary.”
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US Vice President JD Vance speaks during the second day of the Republican National Committee midterm convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on September 10, 2026. (RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images)
Vance said this is typically true of both the Democratic and Republican parties, but that Trump’s endorsement is much more consequential because he first won the trust of everyday voters while Republican Party elites rejected him. Vance said Trump’s endorsement signals to voters that a candidate is not beholden to the party’s elite.
“That’s the person they say, ‘Okay, if Trump is with a guy, that must mean that the elites are against that guy,” Vance said. “I think that Trump’s endorsement just carries more weight than any political endorsement in history because of that. Obviously, the voters are gonna decide. Donald Trump is only one vote of many, but I think his endorsement is still the most powerful.”
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“I love Marco. I think he’s a great secretary of state. He’s become a very, very dear friend. But I think both of us are very much focused on accomplishing the American people’s business right now,” said Vance. (Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Vance’s uncertainty over winning Trump’s blessing comes after Trump previously teased pitting Vance against Secretary of State Marco Rubio for his endorsement in the 2028 presidential race. Trump called Vance and Rubio the “dream team,” at a May Rose Garden Club event but has refused to say who would be at the top of the ticket.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.