In politics, it&#8217;s never too early to start looking ahead. For Republicans today, that means thinking about who will lead their party after Trump leaves the scene.
Legal and political analyst Frank DeVito believes Vice President JD Vance is the man for the job, a case he lays out in the new book, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHF4L24Y?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cso_cp_apin_dp_JPP9MYR69NK8ZJSEVTPT&amp;ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cso_cp_apin_dp_JPP9MYR69NK8ZJSEVTPT&amp;social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cso_cp_apin_dp_JPP9MYR69NK8ZJSEVTPT&amp;bestFormat=true">JD Vance and the Future of the Republican Party</a>.” 
“I think there&#8217;s a pretty good argument that [Trump] chose somebody who has the potential to be a post-Trump leader of the Republican Party and the MAGA movement,” DeVito told The Daily Wire. 
To say not every Republican agrees with that assessment is an understatement. While Vance has become a central figure in the Trump coalition, critics on both the populist right and the GOP&#8217;s more traditional conservative wing question whether his relatively short tenure in national office and shifting political positions make him the natural heir to the movement.
DeVito makes the case that Vance isn’t simply riding the Trump wave, but represents a deeper shift inside the GOP. He says Vance’s focus on family, faith, practicality, and a willingness to confront institutions that have clearly stopped working for normal people are a huge part of the appeal. 
“One of the priorities that he is clearly focused on,&#8221; DeVito says, &#8220;is how do we provide a world where as many people as possible can get married, have stable marriages, and raise children.&#8221;
That emphasis has landed Vance in hot water before, especially when he criticized the Left’s open hostility toward the family. But DeVito said he agrees with Vance’s stance.
“How does any civilization function?” he asked. “You have parents who have children, they raise those children as best they can … You can’t really have civilization without that.”
He points out how normalized it’s become to dismiss those foundations entirely, which leads to civilizational collapse. “If kids are being raised by institutions instead of stable parents … who exactly do we think is going to be running the country in 30 years?” he asked. 
That’s also the context behind one of Vance’s most controversial remarks about how world leaders without children may lack the long-term perspective required to govern well. The backlash was extreme, but DeVito claims the point Vance was making is just obvious. “I would hope leaders are thinking not just about the next election or their stock portfolio, but about what kind of country their grandchildren are going to inherit,” he said.
The comments were criticized not only by Democrats but by some Republicans, who warned that this kind of rhetoric could be politically damaging in a general election.
But it does help to explain Vance’s political evolution, especially his highly scrutinized shift from Trump skeptic to Trump’s running mate. While some conservatives rightly question this about face, DeVito argues it wasn’t opportunism, but a reflection of Vance reassessing Trump’s role in confronting institutional power. 
“If you think American institutions are basically healthy and just need minor corrections, then of course Trump looks insane,” he said. “But what Vance came to believe is that he was wrong about how broken those institutions really are.”
Once Vance figured out the depth of the rot, he pivoted. “They’re actually so co-opted that it might take dropping some dynamite into the system to recover a sane America,” DeVito explained. In that light, Trump isn’t wrecking things for fun, he’s doing what needs to be done to reshape the culture.
What gives Vance credibility here, DeVito insists, is his unique experience going from a broken home to running in elite circles. “How do we create an America where normal people can get married, raise kids, and have meaningful work?” DeVito said. “That question animates everything Vance does.”
Vance grew up amid addiction and instability, then passed through Yale Law and into the upper echelons of society. What he found, DeVito said, was a stunning disconnect. “The elites think things are great and getting better,” he said. “Meanwhile, in the communities Vance came from, it’s addiction, joblessness, broken families, and despair.” 
Faith, again, plays a role here. DeVito argues that Vance’s Catholicism isn’t political branding, but is just more proof that the politician is willing to embrace a truth even when it could hurt his popularity. “There&#8217;s really nothing advantageous to your political career about becoming a Catholic in 2026 or when he converted … So I don&#8217;t think he would do it unless it was genuine,” the author said.
DeVito said in the book that Vance is uniquely positioned to unify the Republican Party.
“The Republican Party in 2015 when Trump went down the escalator was something very different than it is now,” he said, noting how that change hinged on the charisma and force of one person over the last decade. 
Whether that unity is achievable remains an open question, particularly as factions within the party continue to debate the future of MAGA itself.
DeVito also mentioned that the person on deck doesn’t have an easy job. “It&#8217;s a hard dance,&#8221; he observed. &#8220;Nobody&#8217;s going to be Donald Trump.&#8221;

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Is JD Vance The GOP’s Post-Trump Future? One Author Makes The Case.