Usha Vance has been forced to answer a question about her husband running for president.
Vice President JD Vance is one of two names heavily touted to take over from President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with both widely regarded as competing to inherit the heart and soul of MAGA.
Neither has said they’ll run, but when Usha was grilled on it on Fox & Friends on Wednesday, she didn’t shy away.
She was asked how she feels about her husband being the frontrunner for the Republican ticket, and how the prospect of their family moving from Observatory Circle to the White House would make her feel.
“I know everyone is always curious about this, and my way of thinking about it is we just take things one step at a time. Right now that step is he’s really focused on the midterms.
“For me, it’s being focused on the things that I get to do during this four-year period,” she said, referring to her current role as second lady.
“And my attitude is just to have a kind of an open mind, an open heart towards whatever might come next. I’ve seen us adapt to all sorts of things and all sorts of changes. So I know whatever it is that he feels that is the right thing for him to do, we are gonna have a good time doing it, right? We will make the best of it in the best possible way.”
It was a more concrete response than she had offered when she spoke to NBC News in March. She gave birth to their fourth child, a boy named Alec, in July.
“JD is very focused on the midterm elections right now, on all the things that are happening right this moment, which are obviously exceedingly important,” she said. “If you come back in 2027 and ask me, I’ll have a better sense of, you know, what he’s thinking in that way. But that’s not the priority in our conversations.”
Trump has appeared to toy with his two heirs since his return to the White House, reportedly asking various gatherings who they think would make a better successor.
In February last year, he said “it’s too early” to endorse Vance, People reported, before saying in May to Meet the Press: “I think [Vance is] a fantastic, brilliant guy,” The Hill reported at the time.
“Marco is great. There’s a lot of them that are great. I also see tremendous unity. But certainly you would say that somebody’s the VP, if that person is outstanding, I guess that person would have an advantage.”
A year later he was dodging the question entirely, telling Fortune, “Whoever gets this [job] is going to be very important,” he said. ”And if you get the wrong person: disaster.”
Then, in August, Trump gave his most solid indication yet, with The Washington Post citing two sources who claimed he told donors: “At the end of the day, we need to elect JD.”
An Emerson College and The Hill poll last week found that in hypothetical matchups with both men against five possible Democratic candidates, Rubio held up marginally better.
