GOP insiders are 'focused on' the next party leader — but Trump could leave them 'screwed'

As soon as President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, Vice President JD Vance and his close advisers came up with a plan to cement him as the heir apparent to MAGA, Newsweek reports, but some say that plan may already be doomed.

Vance did not want to be “the Kamala Harris VP, where you have this portfolio of things. That was [seen as] pigeonholing him,” a "person familiar with Vance’s thinking" told Newsweek.

Instead, Vance went into the VP office "determined to serve as a political Swiss army knife and stalwart defender of Trump’s agenda, all while keeping the focus on a possible 2028 White House run at bay for as long as possible," Newsweek reports.

Just nine months into Trump's second term, however, and Republican insiders are already looking ahead, and, Newsweek says, Vance's strategy appears to be working.

"Vance has emerged as one of the president’s fiercest supporters on television and social media; an influential voice on domestic policy inside the administration; and a trusted messenger of Trump’s America First vision abroad," Newsweek writes.

Trump has publicly praised Vance as "an athlete," an and anonymous Vance confidant touts him as "just good."

"He’s talented, and Trump trusts him," the anonymous source says. Others aren't so sure.

“For the time being Vance is in a very, very good position. But at some point, it’s going to get very complicated," a top Republican pollster tells Newsweek.

A former Trump campaign official agrees, saying, "It feels like he’s locking up the nomination today. It is the right strategy, but it does put him in a difficult spot in a general election because it won’t allow Vance to be his own mam. [In 2028 if] Trump is popular, which for him is mid-40s [approval rating], and the economy is strong, then Vance is in great shape,” the source says.

However, "If people say no more, like they did when he lost in 2020, Vance is screwed," the source adds.

David Pepper, former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party is skeptical, saying, Vance is “clearly someone who will say and do whatever he needs to do to get ahead. At this point, getting ahead means [defending] whatever terrible thing Trump has just done. And he has no shame in doing it.”

Pepper also points to Vance's political shapeshifting as a potential problem for diehard MAGA Republicans.

“Is it that guy [who once criticized Trump], or the figure who now apologizes for every Trump law violation, goes to bat for [Tom] Homan, makes up stories about Haitian immigrants and thinks the sombrero meme is funny?” Pepper tells Newsweek. “That’s a person you can trust the least. I don’t want that person anywhere near power.”

One MAGA Republican, another former Trump campaign official, agrees, telling Newsweek, “Vance called Trump Hitler and said he was a terrible person. That was just a bridge too far. That wasn’t an assessment of style. I just don’t know that you can change your mind on something like that.”

Other Republicans say it's still too early to speculate on Vance's status.

"This is not a point of conversation on a regular basis,” one ally who speaks frequently with Vance said of the 2028 race. “It’s not like there’s a constant strategizing about JD becoming president, even though everyone thinks that’s where we’re headed.”