Ranking the 2028 Republicans!

It's *never* too early!

(Donald Trump and his sons/ Getty Images)

Donald Trump is a lame duck.

After the 2028 election, he will be constitutionally barred from being president.

I think. (Watch this conversation about the 22nd Amendment

Steve Vladeck

and I had a few weeks back.)

For the purposes of ranking the 2028 Republican field, which I do below, I am operating under two assumptions:

1. Trump may try to stay in office but he will be barred from doing so by the Supreme Court

2. If #1 is true, he will work to exert maximum influence over the identity of the next Republican nominee — and it will probably work.

If #1 isn’t true, then, obviously all bets are off. And we are actually in a constitutional crisis.

I will cross that bridge when I come to it. We are not there yet.

Rather than rank order the potential 2028 candidates, I have put them in tiers: A top tier, a 2nd tier and a 3rd tier. Plus a few wildcards! If your preferred candidate isn’t in the top tier today, never fear! If I had been doing this sort of thing in 2013, I wouldn’t even have had Trump in a tier. And we know how that ended up!

These rankings are the result of conversations with political pros, my observations of the potential candidates and decades (I am old!) of watching how the two parties pick their nominees.

That said, I don’t have a monopoly on right ideas so feel free to disagree with where I slotted the candidates!

Unlike the Democratic field, which I expect to be HUGE, I could see a relatively small group of viable candidates on the Republican side. Why? Because I don’t think many ambitious GOP pols want to piss off Trump and his base by running against his preferred heir — whoever that winds up being. (If you missed my breakdown of the 2028 Democratic field, you can check it out here.)

This post — and all future 2028 rankings posts — will be behind the paywall. This is the sort of insider information and analysis that I believe distinguishes me as someone calling balls and strikes no matter what uniform the batter at the plate is wearing.

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