Two analysts predict that President Donald Trump is surrounded by an inner circle who "all want to be president" and that he picked Vice President JD Vance for one reason: he sees him as "a weak man."
In a Substack video conversation on Wednesday featuring former Republican strategist Rick Wilson and journalist Molly Jong-Fast, the two dive into why Trump gave Vance the position and what it means for the future of the Republican Party.
"JD is not a natural," Wilson said. "In order for him to win in a Republican state of Ohio, Peter Thiel had to open up the checkbook and splooge like $50 million into a state where that's like buying all the TV stations in Ohio... he's a bad politician. Trump, in some ways, I have a theory of the case. I don't know what you think about this. I think Trump, in some ways, chose Vance because he is a weak man."
"He did the same thing with [Mike] Pence," Jong-Fast added.
"He doesn't want to be replaced. He wants somebody who he knows can't take him. Right, and that can't build a big enough network that wouldn't get snitched on if there was a plot against him," Wilson added.
He also argues that Trump and his family have a major reason to stay in power — crypto.
"...They recognize that the best business model they've ever had is the government. They're going to come back and try this s--- again. One way or the other. And I think that's, I think it's funny because Vance really wants to be president," Wilson said.
"And he got punched in the face so hard by [George] Stephanopoulos this weekend. And look, Marco [Rubio] wants to be president and [Pete] Hegseth wants to be president. They all want to be president. [Pam] Bondi wants to be president," he added.
"Because there's no barrier entry, right?" Jong-Fast responded.
Stephanopoulos pulled the plug on his interview with Vance after asking him questions about reports that "Border Czar" Tom Homan had accepted a $50,000 bribe as part of an operation by the FBI years ago. Vance refused to answer and attempted to change the conversation to blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown.
"Vance is a uniquely bad politician... I'm very impressed with what a bad politician he is," Jong-Fast said.
Wilson pointed to what 2028 could look like.
"If Donald Trump were a childless man, the 2028 primary would have 50 Republicans in it," he said.
"And Vance, for all that Vance has, like, tried to take on the character, like, play the character of transgressive MAGA troll now on Twitter," Wilson said. "At the end of the day, it's fake. At the end of the day, he's got some 22-year-old Nazi kid f---ing tweeting for him. At the end of the day, everybody knows it's fake. Some of these people that want to run are more genuine extremist dips---s than even JD Vance. So when you get Noem and you get Hegseth, you get Marco and you get Bondi and you get Mike Lee and you get all these other flotsam and jetsam, MTG coming in from the left of the party. Boom."