President Donald Trump speaks to reporters from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., July 11, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
None of the Republicans angling to succeed President Donald Trump as the 2028 presidential nominee are expected to have an easy time of it, but according to a new analysis from The i Paper, the "scuzzier sides of [Trump's] legacy" are leaving wannabes with a potentially unwinnable battle.
Fred Kaplan is a veteran, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and on Saturday, he published a new piece for The i Paper breaking down the top prospects for the Republican side of the 2028 presidential race, and how much Trump's Iran war and tanking approval ratings are leaving prospective nominees with a brutal balancing act to try and pull off. Winning the nomination will require courting Trump's devoted followers, who will want his direct successors, as well as GOP voters who want someone as far from his as possible.
"If you’re a Republican yearning to be the next U.S. President, the dilemma is how to thrill Donald Trump’s MAGA devotees while also distancing yourself from the scuzzier sides of his legacy," Kaplan wrote. "Persuading the 'base' that you are Trump’s true successor is now a prerequisite to winning the party’s nomination. Yet, breaking away from his bleakest failures will be crucial to winning the general electorate – and, perhaps, when it comes to Trump’s least popular policies, also hanging on to a large share of the party’s faithful."
The two most likely contenders, he explained further, are Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and their are possibly feeling this pressure "most acutely," given their heavy entanglement with the Iran war, "by far [Trump's] least popular policy."
"Even a less wrathful president would demand that his vice president and top foreign-policy aide support his decision to go to war, at least in public," Kaplan continued. "Yet, how the two are handling this dilemma is proving an intriguing study in contrasts. Vance has been busy trying to play the game both ways, publicly supporting the war – often in feverish rhetoric – while quietly letting journalists know that he’s always, very thoughtfully opposed it... Meanwhile, Rubio is doing everything he can to avoid the war altogether, which will be quite the trick if he can pull it off, as he currently wears the two key foreign-policy hats: Secretary of State and acting White House National Security Adviser."
He later concluded: "Trump’s war with Iran is raging on, and his key advisers and possible successors are trying their hardest to avoid being heavily linked to it. For the likes of Vance and Rubio, their future may depend on it."
Another figure from within the administration, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is also reportedly considering plans to run for president in 2028. He is likely to face this dilemma even more so than Vance and Rubio, given his position heading up the military, and his recent history of staunchly defending the war in public.