Tucker Carlson reveals the only person he thinks can replace Trump in 2028

Former Fox News host says J.D. Vance is the ‘only person in the entire Republican Party ... capable of carrying on the Trump legacy’

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson now says Vice President J.D. Vance is the only person who can carry on President Donald Trump’s legacy in 2028.

Carlson appeared on the VINCE podcast with Vince Coglianese, where he said, “I think people want to leave a legacy, all of us do, and great men especially do.”

“And the only person in the entire Republican Party from my position who’s capable of carrying on the Trump legacy and expanding it, making it what it should fully be, is J.D. Vance,” he added. “I think his loyalty is without question, and his service to Trump has been profound.”

When asked about Vance and 2028 last month, Trump told Fox News that there are “a lot of capable people” who can be the next Republican nominee - but didn’t specifically back his own running mate.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has revealed who he thinks can take over the Republican party after Trump (AFP via Getty Images)

“I’m assuming that was just like a phrase that you feel you have to use,” said Carlson, who agreed with Coglianese that Trump avoiding the question was him protecting his second-in-command by removing the focus from the next election.

The former Fox host’s appearance on the podcast was highlighted by Mediaite.

Carlson, whose son Buckley works as Vance’s press secretary, said Vance has been a “powerful partner” to Trump.

“I don’t see any other — at this point, as of today — any other conceivable option,” said Carlson. “I think JD Vance will be the nominee.”

Vice President JD Vance is already being eyed by Republicans as the 48th U.S. president - despite not getting the explicit endorsement from Trump. (AFP via Getty Images)

It would be part of a remarkable turnaround for the former Ohio Senator, who only launched his political career in 2022 when running to replace former Ohio Senator Rob Portman. Vance, 40, has previously slammed Trump as “America’s Hitler.”

His bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy, released in 2016 when Trump was running for the first time, made Vance a sought-after commentator for media outlets attempting to explain Trump’s appeal to white working-class voters.

Vance slammed Trump on numerous occasions before changing tack, saying at the time: “I’m a 'never Trump' guy. I never liked him.”

“My god, what an idiot,” he also once said of Trump, as well as: “I find him reprehensible.”

In October 2016, he told an interviewer, “I think this election is really having a negative effect, especially on the white working class.”

“What it’s doing is giving people an excuse to point the finger at someone else, point the finger at Mexican immigrants, or Chinese trade or the Democratic elites or whatever else,” he added at the time.

In 2016, in a private message on Facebook to a former law school roommate, Vance wrote that he “goes back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

The roommate, Josh McLaurin, told the BBC last year: “To go from those texts…to being Trump’s biggest cheerleader, it’s just kind of unbelievable.”

However, there are some Trump supporters who don’t want the president to step aside. Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon appeared on NewsNation on Tuesday, where he backed the idea of Trump running again in 2018, despite being banned by the Constitution.

“We’re working on it” Bannon said during a discussion regarding Trump running for a third term.