Chuck Todd Says He’d Bet on the 2028 GOP Nominee Being ‘Somebody With the Last Name of Trump’

Screenshot via YouTube.

Chuck Todd reacted to a betting site naming Vice President JD Vance as the most likely successor to President Donald Trump by sharing his own prediction — that the president would pass the torch to someone who shares his last name.

We haven’t even survived the 2026 midterms but chatter about the 2028 elections — which will include an all-too-crucial presidential contest — is heating up.

A broad range of elected officials, political figures, and celebrities have had their names circulate through the rumor mills, and pollsters have been testing and comparing favorability ratings among different key demographics.

Vance, as vice president, is predictably on many commentators’ lists of potential contenders, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and prominent governors and senators from both sides of the aisle — plus several members of the president’s family. None of the other Trumps have held elected office before but that obviously did not stop the current president.

Lara Trump, the wife of the president’s son Eric Trump, had considered running for Senate in both Florida and North Carolina before ultimately sticking with a Fox News gig. However, she has not ruled out running for office herself and has said she expects other members of the family, including her husband and his eldest brother Donald Trump Jr., to consider throwing their red hats into the ring.

Todd discussed some predictions for 2028 from FanDuel Predicts in a clip of his podcast The Chuck ToddCast that he posted on his social media. The betting site currently has Vance as the favorite to be the next Republican presidential nominee.

Todd said FanDuel’s odds for the 2028 GOP primary and who the site “is even allowing you to bet on” was “interesting,” noting that Vance was the “frontrunner,” followed by Rubio “right behind him.”

Donald Trump Jr. was listed third by the prediction market, said Todd, but there was a “huge gap” between the odds for the Trump scion and his father’s two Cabinet members. Other names listed by FanDuel included Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Haley and Ramaswamy’s odds were so poor, said Todd, that betting on them was “literally lighting money on fire,” so “don’t touch that.” He added that betting on DeSantis, who infamously crashed out of the 2024 presidential race after losing all 99 counties in Iowa but still seems keen on another attempt, would also be like lighting money on fire as well.

“I wouldn’t bet any of these,” Todd declared, noting that “historically” it would be a “pretty good bet” to put money on a sitting vice president who’s at “plus money.”

“But I don’t like these odds at the moment,” he continued. “I’d prefer a flyer on somebody with the last name of Trump.”

He listed Lara, Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka Trump as all names he’d bet on.

“Any of those four,” he said. “None of them are zero percent chances in my head.”

He urged FanDuel to “offer something up on the market that the Republican nominee will have the last name of Trump,” adding that “anything over +500, to me, would be worth [betting on].”

Watch the video above via The Chuck ToddCast.

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