"Hawks have long worried that the vice president is too much of a foreign policy restrainer for their tastes (though Vance has often sounded more like neoconservatives in Trump's second term). Still, neocons were giddy last week when polling showed that Marco Rubio's numbers had improved against Vance, with the secretary of state being hawks' main man in the 2016 GOP primaries and a figure who could repurpose "MAGA" as the neoconservatism of old."
"Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid by leaning into his feud with Tucker Carlson - and staking out turf as a traditional, pro-interventionist Republican. By poking at Carlson's isolationist foreign policy views, accusing him of antisemitism and more, Cruz is putting himself on a collision course with Vice President Vance, a Carlson ally widely seen as the 2028 GOP frontrunner."
"If Vance was once positioned to be the thoroughbred MAGA torch-bearer of the promise of no regime-change wars and ending endless conflicts, Cruz wants everyone in his party to know he's the opposite. Cruz's plan appears to to distinguish himself from Vance, or at least the Vance of the past."
J.D. Vance is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination and heir to Trump's MAGA legacy, but the Republican foreign policy establishment remains skeptical of his restraint-oriented approach. Neoconservative hawks have long worried about Vance's foreign policy positions, though he has adopted more hawkish rhetoric during Trump's second term. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are emerging as potential neoconservative challengers. Rubio's polling numbers have improved against Vance, positioning him as a figure who could reframe MAGA through a traditional interventionist lens. Ted Cruz is explicitly building a 2028 campaign by signaling alignment with neoconservatives, attacking antiwar voices like Tucker Carlson and distinguishing himself as a pro-interventionist Republican, directly contrasting with Vance's historical positioning.
Read at The American Conservative
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