JD Vance did not come first when his boss started handing out compliments on the best-looking members of the administration — and he did not come second, either.
President Donald Trump, 80, praised two other men before he reached his own vice president in an exchange that went public Nov. 2, 2026, on the New York Post’s podcast “Pod Force One,” the eve of the Tuesday, Nov. 3, midterm elections.
Host Miranda Devine put the question to him plainly: “Who is the best-looking member of your administration?” She offered him four options — Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump called all of his young Cabinet members attractive, then narrowed the field. “Pete’s a good-looking guy,” he said. “You’re going to get me in big trouble when you ask me those questions.”
He moved to Rubio, 55, next. “I’ll tell you what,” he continued. “Marco’s really a great hot politician in the sense that he’s done great.”
Only then did the vice president’s name come up, and it came with no elaboration at all. “JD, the same thing,” Trump said. “They’re all doing great.” Bessent got more: Trump called him “central casting” and added, “If I was going to do a movie on the Treasury, I’d pick him for the lead,” he said. “They’re all good.”
Trump used the same episode to lay out veto plans for Democratic-backed legislation if Democrats prevailed in the Nov. 3 midterms and won back control of Congress.
He Interrupted Her at “AI”
Trump also cut Devine off in that Nov. 2 interview the moment she said the word “AI,” insisting on his own preferred term. “Sorry! Sorry, super intelligence,” Devine said. Trump then took off on the subject: “So we’re leading in super intelligence, we’re leading in SI, and we’re leading by a lot. We’re beating China, we’re beating everybody in the whole world. No, it’s going to be great.”
“We have to get through the midterms”
Trump has repeatedly floated a Vance-Rubio ticket for 2028, and the vice president has framed it in less certain terms. Vance told journalist Mark Halperin on “2WAY TONIGHT” on Oct. 19 that he expects the president’s endorsement if he runs.
Trump offered no such commitment the next day, when he announced the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program in the Oval Office, which pays tipsters a 1% commission on the fraud their tips help uncover. “It’s early, very early right now. We have to get through the midterms,” he said.
Jealous of a Compliment He Never Got
The podcast capped a closing stretch in which Trump graded candidates’ physiques out loud. At an Oct. 12 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, he described sizing up Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, looking him over from his hands to his backside, which he praised in crude terms. Husted was an All-American defensive back at the University of Dayton. He lost his seat to Democrat Sherrod Brown on Nov. 3.
Trump complimented MAGA rapper Nicki Minaj’s body at a campaign rally, and he has “repeatedly insulted” Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s appearance “for unknown reasons.”
Vance, 42, fielded a question about all of it at a Fox News town hall in Texas on Thursday, Oct. 29, when host Jesse Watters, 48, asked him about the president’s running commentary on Husted. Vance replied, laughing: “Well, first of all, I’m jealous; the president has never said that about me.” He suggested afterward that he would return to the gym, and he described Trump as a comedian by nature, one who likes to liven up an audience.
Handed a question at the same town hall about affordability, Vance quipped that he was surprised more people weren’t asking him about Husted’s derriere — before proceeding to answer the question. The clip circulated on X, where viewers mocked it as weird.
A Second Dan Sullivan on the Ballot
Voters told pollsters they were weighing other things. A Gallup poll released Oct. 29 found the economy and healthcare “extremely important” to half of registered voters, with the war in Iran at 47%. Roughly four in 10 named income and wealth distribution, 44%; gas prices, 42%; immigration, 40%; and abortion, 38%. A Pew Research Center survey in early October found the economy “very important” to 84% of registered voters. Republicans went into the voting squeezed by elevated gas prices, the war in Iran and the cost of living crisis. Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate.
In Alaska, Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola spent the close of the race contending with a report that her campaign helped recruit a second Dan Sullivan onto the ballot, apparently to confuse voters looking for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. Peltola said she knew of no other candidates on the ballot, had no interest in deceiving voters and called the story a diversion from issues such as affordability. The Justice Department sent target letters on Election Day to Democratic lawyer Marc Elias and others in a criminal probe into the second Sullivan’s candidacy. The race had not been called as of Wednesday, Nov. 4, with Peltola narrowly ahead and a ranked-choice tabulation set for Nov. 18 if no candidate tops 50%.
In Michigan, Democrat Haley Stevens lost her Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed and endorsed him afterward, then backed Republican nominee Mike Rogers after El-Sayed refused to address her worries and those of her constituents. Her red lines included some of El-Sayed’s positions, his ties to Hasan Piker, his ads with Tucker Carlson and his not condemning an ad blaming Israel for the high price of groceries. Her fiancé, civil rights attorney Jason Turkish, publicly backed Rogers before she did. On Friday, Oct. 30, ahead of her Sunday, Nov. 1, endorsement, Stevens urged El-Sayed to more forcefully condemn an outside group’s ad criticizing U.S. aid to Israel. The El-Sayed campaign told her to stay away from its events, according to a person familiar with the matter. El-Sayed won the seat on Nov. 3.
Trump, meanwhile, turned the looks question on himself. He posted a split-screen image on Truth Social on Sunday, Nov. 1, lining up the right side of his face with the right side of Elvis Presley’s. He posted a similar comparison in February 2024, and others have pointed out the resemblance to him for years. A New York Times poll released that same day showed Democrats leading in all seven swing states, including an 11-point lead in Michigan.
