Stephen A. Smith does not support JD Vance running for president in 2028 because he thinks the vice president is trying too hard to emulate President Donald Trump.
On Thursday’s episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Smith tackled the topic of who will run for office on the Republican ticket after Trump’s second term. The longtime ESPN host admitted that he did not like the idea of the current vice president running for the top job. His favorite was just a bit lower in Trump’s cabinet.
“From my centrist vantage point, I’m going to tell you that I favor Marco Rubio heavily,” Smith said. “Former senator, secretary of state, national security advisor, I think that he has comported himself like an adult in the room … I don’t trust JD Vance, I just don’t … because I think he aspires to be Trump-like instead of being his own man. That’s my personal impression of what I see when I see him. I’m not questioning his acumen, his knowledge, his political savviness.”
Smith added: “I think that on too many occasions, he doesn’t seem to be an individual that would be interested in governing for all, it would be in governing for his clique of people. Whereas when I think about Marco Rubio, I think that he’s more expansive than that, and I think he’s more of a presidential figure.”
Watch the full segment with host Megyn Kelly below:
Vance appears to prove Smith’s point that he emulates Trump time and again, as recently as this week amid the president’s public sparring with the first American Pope, Pope Leo XIV.
Days after the president went on a Truth Social tirade about the pope after being criticised for the war in Iran, Vance – a Catholic himself – defended Trump. During a Turning Point USA event on Wednesday, Vance warned that Pope Leo should “be careful” when it came to speaking about theology.
“I think one of the issues here is that if you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to be careful,” Vance said. “You’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth, and that’s one of the things that I try to do, and it’s certainly something I would expect from the clergy, whether they’re Catholic or protestant.”
