President Don Jr? Trump’s eldest son closes the gap on JD Vance in new poll of Republican prospects for 2028
Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of President Donald Trump, is emerging as a potential choice to succeed his father on the Republican ticket in 2028, at least according to one poll.
Current vice president JD Vance would still appear to be the front running to take on the mantle for the GOP, pollster McLaughlin and Associates say. But the latest survey of voters in November shows his favorability has fallen to 34 percent, after consistently dropping for several months.
Meanwhile Trump Jr, the 47-year-old executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has seen his popularity steadily rise during the same period. Now just 10 points behind his friend, Trump Jr comes second on a list of 16 hypothetical candidates that includes Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
In August, the gap between them was 20 points, suggesting a steadily growing appetite for the prospect of the son stepping into his father’s shoes ahead of Vance, whom Don Jr recommended to the president in summer 2024 when he was choosing a new running mate.
An alternative poll shows voters significantly less impressed with the prospect of a Trump sequel. YouGov conducted a survey earlier in November that showed Vance with 42 percent against Trump Jr’s 13 percent.
So could Donald Trump Jr really be his father’s political successor?
Trump Jr has long been a favorite with the MAGA movement, always willing to pump up the crowds at Trump rallies, stand up for the administration on cable news, and attack Democrats on his Rumble podcast Triggered.
Having never served in public office, he is also relatively free of the Washington “swamp,” a major turn-off for Trump’s “America First” supporters, so could offer a fresh spin on the family brand.
The eldest Trump heir was born on New Year’s Eve 1977 to the real estate magnate and his first wife Ivana Trump, a Czech immigrant to the United States.
Trump Jr has two younger siblings, Ivanka and Eric, and two half-siblings from his father’s later marriages, Tiffany and Barron. Unlike his brothers and sisters, he discovered an early love for the great outdoors and spent his boyhood summers hunting and fishing in his late mother’s homeland under the guidance of his grandfather Milos Zelnicek.
He was educated at the exclusive Buckley School in Manhattan’s Upper East Side before attending The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and then at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, from which he graduated in 2000 with an economics degree.
Trump Jr was reportedly estranged from his father for around a year, aged 12, when his parents divorced. He spent a year bartending in affluent Aspen, Colorado, after graduating, but has otherwise remained a Trump through-and-through.
He joined the family business after his wilderness year and worked on a number of the Trump Organization’s biggest Big Apple luxury property projects, also serving as a regular guest on his father’s hit NBC reality show The Apprentice from 2006 to 2015.
Trump Jr was married to Vanessa Haydon from 2005 to 2018, with whom he has five children including Kai Trump.
