DALLAS — At 6 a.m. Thursday, fresh off less than four hours of sleep, Vice President JD Vance’s phone rang in his hotel room. It was President Donald Trump.
“JD, are you awake?” Trump asked his second-in-command.
After delivering a nearly two-hour speech geared toward his base Wednesday night at the GOP’s midterm convention, the president was up and ready to talk to Vance about what comes next — about their speeches, about the upcoming elections and about how they will work together to try to defy expectations of congressional losses.
The exchange, which Vance described during a closed-door meeting here Thursday morning with party activists, illustrated Trump’s continued close working relationship with Vance as the vice president prepares to potentially launch his own bid for president. The Washington Post obtained audio of the meeting.
On the convention stage Thursday night, as Vance gave the keynote address, the vice president basked in the kind of affection and praise from the crowd usually reserved only for Trump.
Audience members broke into roaring cheers of “JD!” as he walked onstage. Midway through his speech, the crowd erupted into a chant of “48,” a reference to the fact that Vance would be the 48th president if he were elected in 2028. Vance smiled at the lectern, taking it in.
Similar friendly outbursts continued throughout his speech, in which he talked about the kind of country he wanted to raise his children in. He also appealed for Republican unity, while attacking Democrats as the “party of hatred.”
One night earlier, the president had praised him and generated applause for Vance during his own speech, and after Vance exited the stage on Thursday, Trump marveled at the vice president’s performance. “What a job he did,” Trump told the crowd. It’s the latest sign that Trump is giving his nod for Vance to be the party’s heir apparent, even as the president has not made an explicit endorsement.
“You know, I watch him, last week, and he was standing there with like 20 guys behind him, all central casting, all look like they just got out of the greatest law schools,” Trump — ever conscious of his Cabinet officials’ appearances on television — said of Vance, talking about one of the vice president’s anti-fraud news conferences.
“And I said, it looks like Eliot Ness. It’s Eliot Ness in the old days,” Trump said, referencing the federal Prohibition agent who helped take down gangster Al Capone in the 1930s.
The Post reported last month that Trump has privately told donors he wants to see Vance elected in 2028.
Vance responds to heckler, honors late friend Charlie Kirk
Vance’s prime-time speech on Thursday could further strengthen the perception in the party that he is Trump’s most likely successor. Vance paid tribute to his late friend Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was fatally shot one year ago Thursday, and spoke of becoming a father again and about his vision for America’s future. His wife, Usha, gave birth to their fourth child in July.
He described the kind of place he said he wanted his children to grow up in — “a country where you don’t need a PhD in chemistry to understand the ingredient list in the grocery store,” and where American businesses “hire American workers” and “build American products with American hands,” among other goals.
At the same time, he attacked Democrats for what he said was their criticism of “the nuclear family,” and brought the audience to their feet when he warned those Democrats to “stay the hell away from our kids.”
He decried illegal immigration and plugged his own efforts to find instances of fraud on government programs by immigrants, saying, “Our country was stolen from us and then handed out to strangers.”
And he urged those in the conservative movement to remain unified despite differences that have sharply divided the party — issues that the next GOP nominee will have to navigate to try to hold together Trump’s 2024 coalition.
Vance noted that Kirk, a key ally of Trump’s White House, was open about his disagreement with going to war against Iran.
But, he argued, those divisions were small compared with the gulf between what Republicans and Democrats stand for.
“Don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there,” he said, while describing Democrats as “the party that despises America and the people who built it.”
When a heckler interrupted his speech, shouting and holding up what Vance described as a Mexican flag, the vice president fired back quickly: “Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there. I’ll buy you the plane ticket.”
The vice president, who has generated tens of millions of dollars for the Republican National Committee over the past year while leading its fundraising efforts, headlined a lunch fundraiser Thursday that brought in $2 million more for the committee, which has mustered a sizable cash lead over its Democratic counterpart.
Rubio dismisses plans for a presidential run as Cruz teases his own
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been touted by some as a rival to Vance, has been absent from the convention — he is on an official trip to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru — but in an interview this week with a Colombian news outlet, Rubio said he has “no plans at this time” to run for president. The secretary of state has polled second behind Vance in most surveys of a potential 2028 Republican field.
Rubio did not rule out ever seeking the presidency, saying he did not know “what the future holds,” but the remark poured cold water on the hopes of some Republicans that Rubio is plotting a 2028 bid. Vance and Rubio have openly discussed their friendship, and Rubio has said he will support Vance if he runs.
Trump’s embrace of Vance as he approaches the potential launch of a presidential campaign — a decision Vance advisers insist he has not finalized — comes as the vice president faces pushback from some parts of the party.
While Rubio didn’t have a speaking slot at the convention, one of Vance’s most likely 2028 primary rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, spoke ahead of Vance during Thursday’s convention programming. Cruz has continued to publicly cast doubt on Vance’s ability to lead the party, including during a recent interview with MSNOW, in which he said he did not believe the party has decided on Vance.
Cruz drew standing ovations as he called for the GOP to “defeat the Islamists” and for communities in the United States to resist sharia law, a reference to Muslim religious law that has become a frequent talking point for some on the right.
The evening before their speeches, Cruz showed up just before midnight at a private party in Dallas hosted by several close Vance allies, including Donald Trump Jr., communications consultant Arthur Schwartz and venture capitalist Chris Buskirk.
“No one running wants a primary challenge,” said Ron Nehring, the former chairman of the California Republican Party who also served as spokesman for Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign. “Everybody wants to have the nomination handed to them on a silver platter. But you know what? Primaries make candidates better.”
Nehring said he expected the 2028 primary to be “underway in earnest in 60 days” — just after the midterm elections. He said he hopes to see Cruz run.
“Certainly, the primaries in 2016 made Donald Trump a better general-election candidate, and so nobody has to be afraid of that. It’s a natural part of the process,” he said.
Interviews with rank-and-file convention attendees showed some support for Vance.
Palm Beach, Florida, resident Carmen Damron said that although she thinks Rubio would be an “amazing” choice to lead the GOP ticket in 2028, it should be Vance who gets the party’s nomination.
“JD, every day he’s doing more and more, and he is being more visible,” said Damron, who wore a skirt featuring images of several Republican figures from Florida, including gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds, Rep. Kat Cammack and former congressman Matt Gaetz.
Others said the path seemed less certain. Vernon Jones, a former Democratic state representative from Georgia who switched parties in 2021 after backing Trump, said Republicans’ midterm performance could play a meaningful role in how a bid by Vance is viewed.
“Will the GOP rank-and-file associate him with us losing the midterms and say, ‘Okay, he’s a part of this past administration, we want new blood’?” Jones said from the convention arena.
He predicted poor results for Republicans in his home state, for example.
“So I’d say, sit back, buckle up, get ready for a ride. And I don’t think it’s going to be a pretty ride, either,” said Jones, who has unsuccessfully run for other federal and state offices. “I think there’s going to be some casualties.”
Mariana Alfaro contributed to this report.
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