Donald Trump has dominated the Republican Party for a decade, and he has never had to answer the question of who comes after him. Now that question is here, and the stakes could not be higher. The president's next move could shape the GOP for a generation, and the smartest choice is the one he's already hinting at.
If he means it.
Trump has no more elections left. He's term-limited, the midterms are over, and the 2028 race will start ramping up in the coming months. Naturally, everyone wants to know who will take the baton. There's no denying that Trump has tremendous power and influence over the GOP, and anyone he endorses would likely become the immediate favorite. Yet Trump is now signaling that he might not endorse anyone at all.
In a post-midterm interview, CBS asked Trump whether he would weigh in on the 2028 primary. "Probably, not necessarily," Trump told 60 Minutes. "So I may or may not get involved... Maybe I'm better off not getting involved."
Who will be the next Republican presidential nominee? President Trump discusses potential successors. https://t.co/Ozv5KmEAQj https://t.co/vJPLRXXMJu
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 9, 2026
He has spent months praising the party's "great bench," and he stuck with that line even after Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate. "I think we have an unbelievable bench of talent," Trump told Fox News' Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum on election night. "We have a great group of talented people that I think would do a very good job."
That bench is already moving.
More than a dozen Republicans are weighing runs, and the jockeying began the morning after Election Day. Vice President JD Vance has long been the presumed heir apparent, but pundits now say the midterm losses have turned a possible coronation into a crowded, competitive race.
On Wednesday, Vance posted a roughly 600-word postmortem on X blaming the war with Iran for the losses, which some read as an early claim on the MAGA and America First mantle. He still leads many early primary polls, has a strong fundraising network built partly through his role as Republican National Committee finance chair, and has a team of advisers that could form the core of a campaign.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio has seen his early poll numbers soar, though he has rejected reports that he would step down to prepare a run. He has said repeatedly that he would back Vance. Reporters in France pressed him on 2028 Monday. "I don't know why you're wasting your time," Rubio said. "I'm not going to talk about 2028 any longer. I'm just not going to talk about 2028 anymore."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has openly said he may run again, and he warned that the GOP has lost touch with voters, especially in Texas. "It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election," Cruz wrote. "It was a Watergate-level repudiation." He has set himself apart from Vance with his strong support for the Israeli government, and his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, gives him a ready-made grassroots network.
Then there's Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), who leaves office at the start of the new year. He called the results "close to an extinction-level event for Republicans across the country" and kept reminding interviewers that "the one state that was able to hold the line and withstand that is right here in the free state of Florida." On Friday, he swatted down a report about a 2028 run. "I have not reached out to anybody about running for anything," DeSantis said. "Just another pathetic attempt to garner clicks."
Here's the thing: if Trump stays out of the primary, it will be a good thing for the party, and the Darline Graham Nordone fiasco in South Carolina shows why. Pushing her to serve out the remainder of her late brother's term may have been a nice gesture, but it was still not a great idea. That said, endorsing her for a full term was a disaster in the making. Nordone didn't have the know-how or experience to be a U.S. senator, and her debates proved it. Voters listened to Trump and nominated her anyway, and a race that shouldn't have even been competitive was lost.
That ill-advised endorsement turned a safe seat into a loss. Maybe Trump learned from that mistake and plans to trust primary voters, then go all in for whoever wins.
That's the right call, and I'm hoping he follows through. A movement that depends on one man's blessing will not outlast him. A movement whose voters test their candidates, pick the strongest one, and then unite behind that choice can keep winning long after Trump leaves the stage. Letting the voters decide is how Trump turns his movement into something that lasts.
