Vice President JD Vance’s path to a potential 2028 GOP presidential nomination is facing a complicated path forward as he navigates warring factions of the MAGA movement, split over the United States’ support for Israel.
At the conservative Turning Point USA AmericaFest event last week, conservative infighting erupted between some of the most high-profile figures on the right. Through all of that, TPUSA gave the vice president a full-throated endorsement for 2028.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” said Erika Kirk, the widow of TPUSA’s founder Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September, on Thursday.
But amid that endorsement, conservatives were also fighting over antisemitism, bigotry, U.S. support for Israel, and the future of the GOP in a post-Donald Trumpworld.
Tucker Carlson’s podcast interview with antisemite Nick Fuentes has split the conservative movement and dominated much of the attention at AmFest. Ben Shapiro, founder of the Daily Wire, took aim at Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Steve Bannon over their failure to call out anti-Semitism among conservatives such as Candace Owens during his address at AmFest. Shapiro claimed Carlson’s interview with Fuentes was “an act of moral imbecility” and accused his foes of being “charlatans.”
VANCE SWINGS AT NEWSOM AND HARRIS FOLLOWING 2028 ENDORSEMENTS AT AMERICAFEST
“The conservative movement is in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” Shapiro said.
Carlson hit back an hour after Shapiro spoke, saying, “I watched it. I laughed.”
Bannon, meanwhile, said: “Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads… And mark my word, he will make a move on Turning Point, because he’s always been envious of Charlie Kirk.”
The vice president, long seen as Trump’s heir, has tried to stay out of the spat, calling for the party to unite against Democrats, to the chagrin of some Republicans.
Vance’s tightrope act
Speaking to the Washington Examiner, one Republican strategist said of Vance: “The Vice President has to sh*t or get off the pot on this issue. He has to decide if he wants to stand against anti-Semitism and against racism. And make very clear to folks like Fuentes and Candace Owens and the other haters out there that they are not welcome in the Republican Party.”
Vance took a somewhat down-the-middle approach before the growing tensions eventually forced Vance to downplay the GOP disagreements during an interview with UnHerd, which was published after his speech to TPUSA.
“On some of the broader issues, anti-Semitism, and all forms of ethnic hatred, have no place in the conservative movement,” he said. “Whether you’re attacking somebody because they’re white or because they’re black or because they’re Jewish, I think it’s disgusting, and we should call that stuff out.”
Fuentes “can eat s***,” Vance also said about political figures who have attacked his wife, second lady Usha Vance.
The drama over Fuentes has not abated since the podcast interview was released in late October.
Vance distanced the Trump administration from the controversial Fuentes by telling UnHerd that Fuentes’s “influence within Donald Trump’s administration, and within a whole host of institutions on the Right, is vastly overstated, and frankly, it’s overstated by people who want to avoid having a foreign-policy conversation about America’s relationship with Israel.” But has also tried to appease younger Republicans who are somewhat critical of Israel, a top U.S. ally.
One Vance ally told the Washington Post that “he’s walking a tightrope.”
A Republican close to the White House, who requested anonymity to speak, told the Washington Examiner that Vance’s denouncing of antisemitism was “the right answer.”
“Whether it comes from Donald Trump or it comes from JD Vance, anti-Semitism has no place in America,” the Republican added. But they also added that the tension over U.S. support for Israel and anti-Semitism is “just not the hill that you’re gonna die on in a Republican Party when you’re trying to get everyone to march in the same direction.”
At his address at AmericaFest, the vice president also denounced racism and sexism while touting that DEI had been relegated “to the dustbin of history, which is exactly where it belongs.”
“Unlike the left, we don’t treat anybody differently because of their race or their sex,” Vance said.
Whether Vance’s comments will quell the infighting is yet to be seen, and it could hurt Vance in 2028.
“This is the first early test for the vice president to show if he has a backbone or not,” said the Republican strategist. “Whether you like Donald Trump or not, he takes a position on issues, and if they’re unpopular, he’s not shy about giving people the middle finger.”
TPUSA is reportedly already gearing up to support Vance with representatives in all 99 counties in Iowa, home to the first caucus contest in the GOP presidential calendar, ahead of the primary.
“JD Vance brought the clarity that the movement needed,” Andrew Kolvet, TPUSA’s spokesman, said during a Monday taping of the “Charlie Kirk show,” defending Vance.
“I genuinely think it was historic. It was important,” he continued. “Looking back, this moment that all of us can look to and say that was the moment where things really began to crystallize again.”
Republicans outside of the Trump administration are also waiting to see how Vance’s handling of infighting settles out. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is reportedly weighing a 2028 presidential campaign, as Trump will be term-limited. The Texas senator has also allegedly pushed the GOP to distance itself from Carlson, whom he has criticized for the Fuentes interview.
A straw poll, conducted by Big Data Poll on behalf of TPUSA, showed Vance was the top candidate that AmFest attendees wanted as the 2028 nominee at 84.2%, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio pulling at 4.8%, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) at 2.9%, Donald Trump Jr. at 1.8%, and Cruz at 0.3%.
As Vance navigates the rest of the second administration, a Republican close to the White House warned him not to get ahead of the president amid the GOP infighting.
“If anyone can quash this debate quickly, it’s one Donald Trump,” they said. But, “you don’t step outside of Donald Trump. He’s still the king.”