T he good news is that the dramatic results of last week’s midterm elections mean that Donald Trump and his administration will be much less able to immiserate and impoverish the American people for the next two years, that newly competitive states are likely to see an influx of investment from Democrats, and that states that were once under seemingly unbreakable regimes of Republican control now have Democratic state governments that will hopefully pursue more just, or at least less cruel, policy agendas.

The bad news is that the 2028 presidential cycle has already begun.

No one seems to know this better than JD Vance , the man who is in the unenviable position of being the presumptive favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028.

Ahead of that contest, and in light of Donald Trump’s collapsed approval rating and the decisive rebuke that Republicans faced at the polls in the midterms, JD Vance has set about trying to spin the catastrophic results for his party into a beneficial outcome for…