Before even the looming midterm elections, people are looking forward to 2028. According to the RealClearPolitics polling averages, Vice President JD Vance unsurprisingly leads the pack, with Donald Trump Jr. somewhat inexplicably in second place. But it’s far from a done deal. In fact, some trends suggest that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is practically running the federal government at this point, is on the rise, and that Vance is either plateauing or starting to dip.
This is why many people saw Vance’s latest appointment as a poisoned chalice, not unlike Kamala Harris’s doomed “border czar” task.
Condemning “the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation” during his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump took a break from raking in the crypto cash from the United Arab Emirates to announce a “war on fraud to be led by our great vice president, JD Vance.”
“He’ll get it done,” Trump said. “And if we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It’ll go very quickly. That’s the kind of money you’re talking about.”
Now, it’s often the case that jobs given to vice presidents are designed to keep them busy and keep them out of the way. But this could actually work in Vance’s favor, because it fits with his brand, providing him with a possibly endless slew of PR wins tailor-made for social media without the need or expectation of any policy changes.
After all, pointing to the problem and making a loud noise is all we expect from our politicians these days. Finding fraud in the U.S. government is about as easy as finding a Ukraine flag or a BLM logo in a woke neighborhood.
Let’s remember how the Trump administration responded to a viral “report” on alleged Somali fraud in Minneapolis: It mobilized thousands of immigration enforcement agents and unleashed them on the state of Minnesota before fecklessly retreating in response to the inevitable anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement backlash. It was all about clickbait then, and it’ll be all about clickbait now.
And guess what? They’re heading straight back to Minnesota, with Vance, alongside Dr. Mehmet Oz, who, you may have forgotten, is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, announcing that the administration would “temporarily halt” Medicaid funding for the state. Cue the clicks! Cue the outrage! Cue more clicks!
TRUMP NEEDS CONGRESS IF HE WANTS TO KEEP HIS TARIFF REGIME
For Vance, attention is all that matters here, especially as he mimics Trump with his absurd claim that “nobody has ever tried to take a systematic look at how much fraud there is in the federal government.” Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency might have something to say about that.
For a candidate who cares about two things and two things only, staying on Trump’s good side and winning the nomination in 2028, this might work out just fine.
Ian Haworth is a syndicated columnist. You can find his work on Substack.