WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is more unpopular than ever, facing historically bad approval ratings and growing pushback to his agenda from his own party in Congress.
But the biggest sign the president is entering his lame-duck period is the behavior of other Republicans, especially those thirsty to position themselves as possible post-Trump leaders of the party.
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With over three years still left in his second term, some prominent Republicans are beginning to position themselves for a post-Trump world, building out their national profiles by staking out positions that are at times antithetical to Trump and traveling to early primary states to meet with donors.
Although Vice President JD Vance is widely viewed as the GOP front-runner to succeed the MAGA mantle, Trump’s political struggles have generated speculation about other potential candidates, including Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and several of Trump’s Cabinet members.
Meanwhile, Democrats’ big electoral wins this month bode well for their party’s performance in next year’s midterm elections, where recapturing the House or Senate would give them significant powers to rein in the administration and launch all sorts of investigations into allegations of corruption and self-dealing by Trump, his family, and many of his aides.
Even Trump has seemed to acknowledge the running clock ticking down on his presidency.
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“We will be here for three and a quarter years,” Trump remarked at a White House dinner last week. “For the Trump, that’s like an eternity. For somebody else, that doesn’t sound long.”
JD Vance
Vice President JD Vance speaks with Breitbart News Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Nov. 20 in Washington. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Early polls show Vice President JD Vance as a clear and heavy favorite for the 2028 GOP nomination. He’s polling competitively in a hypothetical matchup against California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is expected to run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
Vance has been Trump’s biggest MAGA whisperer during his first year in office, traveling across the country to speak to conservative audiences and connect with evangelical voters following right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September. The president has called Vance his “most likely” heir without going so far as to endorse him yet.
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Vance said during a Fox News interview this week that he planned to speak to Trump about the 2028 race after next year’s midterm elections. But the vice president clearly has an eye on the future, telling Breitbart News, “we’re not going back” to what the Republican Party looked like before Trump.
“The American people don’t want stupid wars and America’s jobs going overseas and wide open borders. That is, whether intentional or not, that was the legacy of the Republican Party that came before Donald J. Trump. I’m glad the president got us away from that Republican Party,” Vance said. “We’re not going back to it.”
Ted Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, attends a hearing on the nomination of Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, for Commandant of the Coast Guard on Nov. 19. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is clearly trying to steer the direction of the Republican Party back toward what he views as a purer and more principled form of conservatism. Whether that will include another presidential run is yet to be seen, but the 2016 GOP presidential candidate and onetime Trump foe has been increasingly vocal in the past few months about far-right segments of the MAGA coalition, including racists and antisemites in the party.
“If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very, very cool, and that their mission is to combat and defeat global Jewry, and you say nothing, then you are a coward and you are complicit in that evil,” Cruz said last month after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a Trump supporter who is an ally of Vance, platformed white supremacist Nick Fuentes in an uncritical interview.
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Cruz also made headlines when he slammed the Federal Communications Commission and its Trump-appointed chair, Brendan Carr, after Carr threatened to retaliate against ABC host and Cruz frenemy Jimmy Kimmel for comments Kimmel made about Kirk, who was assassinated in September. Cruz, who leads the Senate committee that has oversight of the FCC, compared the threat to mob tactics and condemned it.
The White House is paying attention. Trump White House officials and their allies believe the conservative senator is using his position on the committee as a way to position himself against Vance ahead of the 2028 presidential race, according to NOTUS.
The Texas Republican didn’t rule out a presidential run when asked about it in an interview with HuffPost, highlighting instead his legislative accomplishments and support for Trump.
“My focus is on the fight right in front of us,” Cruz said this week. “We’re winning major victories. We’ve seen illegal border crossings drop over 99%. In the One Big Beautiful Bill, we had historic conservative wins. I was proud to write very major portions of that bill, including the most far-reaching federal school choice program in American history.”
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“And so my focus is on continuing to deliver victories for 31 million Texans, and to continue to deliver victories for the American people working hand in hand with President Trump,” he added.
Rand Paul
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) departs following a classified briefing on President Donald Trump’s directed strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last weekend, at the Capitol on June 26. AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) hasn’t shied away from expressing his interest in another crack at the White House. The libertarian 2016 GOP presidential candidate has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Trump. He didn’t endorse Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign until three months after Election Day, saying he was wrong not to do so earlier.
Recently, however, Paul has grown increasingly critical of Trump’s policies, especially his tariffs and the rate of spending in the GOP-controlled Congress.
The Kentucky Republican told HuffPost this week that a White House run is “an option” on the table because of Trump’s trade policies.
“I want to be a voice in the future of what happens for the country and also for the Republican Party,” he said. “I think that the ranks of people in elected office who are still for free trade has shrunk, to me, and so I want that voice to be a choice for people, whether that means running for president or just being active.”
“We’re going to probably not know for a while, but it is an option,” he added of a presidential run.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. AP Photo/John Bazemore, File
No Republican lawmaker has had a more dramatic split with Trump quite like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who announced last week she would resign from Congress in January. The far-right Georgia congresswoman was once his biggest supporter in the House, embracing the role of MAGA attack dog against former President Joe Biden, and making excuses for Trump and his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
But Trump’s initial opposition to releasing files related to the late *** offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Greene championed, as well as his policies on immigration and health care that have enraged some within the MAGA world, have pushed the two further apart. Trump hurled criticism at the congresswoman this week, calling her a “traitor” and a “disgrace.”
Greene didn’t back down, saying that Trump’s handling of the Epstein files was “destructive” to the MAGA movement.
“This has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA, is watching the man that we supported early on three elections, for people that stood hours, slept in their cars, to go to rallies, have fought for truth and transparency and to hold what we consider a corrupt government accountable — watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart,” Greene said.
Greene has a long history of transphobic, racist and xenophobic comments, but her decision to speak out against Trump has nevertheless drawn praise from Democrats. She’s even gotten invites to speak on national programs, such as ABC’s “The View,” which is popular with liberals. Like Vance, she wants to encourage the GOP to move in a more populist direction — even if it’s not entirely clear what that means to her.
“I really just want to see people be kind to one another,” Greene told CNN earlier this week. “And we need to figure out a new path forward that is focused on the American people, because, as Americans, no matter what side of the aisle we’re on, we have far more in common than we have differences.”
Marco Rubio
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to traveling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Ontario, Canada, on Nov. 12 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another former 2016 GOP presidential contender, has made it known that he believes Vance is the front-runner in the race and he’d support Vance if the Ohioan decides to run for president.
“I think JD Vance would be a great nominee if he decides he wants to do that,” Rubio said during an interview with Fox News earlier this year.
But Rubio’s name has come up as a possible rival to Vance anyway – including by Trump, who told reporters that his chief diplomat would be a good presidential prospect last month. Rubio’s foreign policy record could help him in a GOP primary. He helped dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a favorite punching bag on the right, levied sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba and aided the release of Israeli hostages from Hamas.
Vance also hasn’t dismissed the possibility of running against Rubio in 2018.
“If Marco eventually runs for president, then that’s ― we can cross that bridge when we come to it,” Vance told Fox News in a separate interview this month.
He added: “But people have asked me, ‘Do you see Marco as a rival?’ First of all, if either one of us end up running, it’s a long ways in the future, and neither of us is entitled to it.”
Ron DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference Aug. 12 in Tampa, Fla. AP Photo/Chris O’Meara, File
Asked if he was thinking about running for president, onetime Trump rival and Florida Gov. DeSantis (R) dodged the question, saying he was focused on winning Republican races in next year’s midterm elections.
“I’m not thinking about anything because I think we have a president now who’s not even been in for a year. We’ve got a lot to accomplish … We’ve got to do a good job as Republicans,” he said on CNN this week.
“This jockeying and all that I don’t think is productive for us. Get things done for people,” he added.
DeSantis is term-limited, and his current term as governor will end in January 2027, freeing him up should he decide to run for higher office again.
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