VP Vance Teases 2028 Bid, Says It Won’t Be ‘Given’ To Him
Vice President JD Vance stopped short of declaring that he would run for president in 2028, but did say that if he does his job properly, “the politics will figure itself out.”
During an appearance on “My View” with Lara Trump on Saturday night, Vance — who won over the country with his strength in the face of personal and financial problems growing up — said he “doesn’t like thinking about” running for president and stressed that his focus is now on his current job.
“If we do a good job in 2025 and 2026, then we can talk about the politics in 2027,” Vance said. “I really think the American people are so fed up with folks who are already running for the next job, seven months into the current one.”
The second-in-command said that if he does run, he knows he will have to work for it.
“There are a lot of great people. If I do end up running, it’s not going to be given to me—either on the Republican side or on the national side. I’m just going to keep on working hard.… [This] may be the most important job I ever had, outside of being a father to those three beautiful kids. So I’m going to try to do my best job, and I think if I do that, the politics will figure itself out,” Vance said.
When asked specifically about potential 2028 Democratic candidates, he noted most of them “obviously have very bad records.”
Vance mostly talked on his own ticket, praising President Donald Trump’s hard work and trusted leadership style and saying that the president “doesn’t have an off switch.”
“Sometimes, the president will call you at 12:30 or 2 a.m., and then call you at 6 a.m. about a totally different topic,” Vance said. “It’s like, ‘Mr. president, did you go to sleep last night.’… What’s made this so much fun is the president, all the time, just saying, ‘JD you go and do this,’ or ‘JD you go and talk to these leaders about this particular issue.’ That ability to delegate and trust his people has been really amazing.”
In an interview with USA Today published Friday, Vance was asked about Trump’s age; the president began his second term at 78 and turned 79 in June.
“The president is in incredibly good health,” Vance told the outlet. “He’s got incredible energy. He’s the last person making phone calls at night, and he’s the first person who wakes up, and the first person making phone calls in the morning.”
The vice president was asked, given that he’s “one heartbeat away from the presidency” and would be one of the youngest in U.S. history should he need to fulfill the role soon, if he was ready to be commander-in-chief.
“Yes, things can always happen. Yes, terrible tragedies happen,” Vance responded. “But I feel very confident the president of the United States is in good shape, is going to serve out the remainder of his term, and do great things for the American people.”
“And if, God forbid, there’s a terrible tragedy, I can’t think of better on-the-job training than what I’ve gotten over the last 200 days,” he added.
The White House released a memo last month from Sean Barbabella, the physician to the president, addressing mild swelling in his legs and photos that circulated showing bruising on Trump’s hand.
Barbabella said tests revealed Trump had “chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition among people over 70.”
Regarding the bruising, Barbabella said it was “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin,” a standard part of his cardiovascular prevention regimen.
Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme
The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.
Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.
Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.
The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.
Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.
“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”
According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.
Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.
Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.
The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.
Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.
Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.
As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.
The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.
“Preserving the fiscal and programmatic integrity of the ACA Exchanges is key to safeguarding taxpayer-funded resources for those that truly need them,” the report states.
“The federal government paying brokers to enroll individuals without their knowledge is not.”
The report also says the administration will continue pursuing additional enforcement actions against brokers and others accused of exploiting the program.
“The Trump Administration continues to aggressively root out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption by promulgating new regulations to improve program integrity, investigating suspected improper or fraudulent enrollment, and taking action against agents and brokers committing fraud.”
The findings are likely to reignite debate over the Affordable Care Act and how aggressively eligibility rules should be enforced.
Supporters of the administration argue the report demonstrates that stricter oversight is necessary to protect taxpayers and preserve benefits for those legally entitled to receive them.
Critics of previous verification rollbacks have long warned that loosening enrollment safeguards could increase improper payments and fraud, while supporters of the Biden-era policies argued the changes made healthcare more accessible to eligible Americans, Fox News reported exclusively.
The administration says its investigations remain ongoing, with an estimated 2.6 million additional enrollments still under review as officials continue auditing the federal health insurance exchanges.
Trump has been pushing to replace Obamacare for over a decade, and this may give Republicans enough motivation to actually do something.
