Asked to name the best-looking member of his administration, President Donald Trump praised two other men before he got around to his own vice president.
The 80-year-old president handed down his rankings on the New York Post’s “Pod Force One,” where host Miranda Devine offered him a choice among Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The exchange went public Nov. 2, 2026, on the eve of the Tuesday, Nov. 3, midterm elections.
“Who is the best-looking member of your administration?” Devine asked. Trump told her all of his young Cabinet members were attractive, then began narrowing 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.”
“JD, the Same Thing”
Trump moved next to Rubio, 55. “I’ll tell you what,” he continued. “Marco’s really a great hot politician in the sense that he’s done great.”
Then came the vice president. “JD, the same thing,” Trump said. “They’re all doing great.”
Bessent fared better. Trump called the treasury secretary “central casting” and kept going: “If I was going to do a movie on the Treasury, I’d pick him for the lead,” he said. “They’re all good.”
The president has repeatedly floated a Vance-Rubio ticket for 2028, an arrangement the vice president has described in less certain terms. Vance told journalist Mark Halperin on “2WAY TONIGHT” on Oct. 19 that he expects Trump’s endorsement if he runs. The next day, at an Oval Office announcement of the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, which would pay tipsters up to 1% of money the government recovers, Trump said he and Vance are in agreement on virtually everything.
The Backside Dominating the Final Stretch
The podcast capped a closing stretch in which Trump has graded his candidates’ physiques out loud. At an Oct. 12 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, he described sizing up Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, a former football coach and an All-American defensive back at the University of Dayton, looking him over from his hands to his backside, which the president praised in crude terms. Trump has also complimented MAGA rapper Nicki Minaj’s body at a campaign rally.
Vance, 42, got the question at a Fox News town hall in Texas on Thursday, Oct. 29, where host Jesse Watters, 48, asked about the president’s running commentary on Husted. “Well, first of all, I’m jealous; the president has never said that about me,” Vance responded, laughing, before suggesting he might head back to the gym. He described the president as a comedian by nature who likes to liven up an audience.
What the Town Hall Skipped
Handed a question at that same town hall about the cost of housing, Vance at first avoided it and turned the conversation back to Husted’s body. The clip circulated on X, where viewers mocked it as weird.
Voters, by their own account, were focused elsewhere. In a Gallup poll released Oct. 29, half of registered voters called the economy and healthcare extremely important to their vote, and 47% said the same of the war in Iran. Roughly four in 10 pointed to income and wealth distribution at 44%, gas prices at 42%, immigration at 40% and abortion at 38%. A Pew Research Center survey from early October found 84% of registered voters rated the economy very important.
Republicans go into the voting at risk of losing control of both the House and the Senate, squeezed by elevated gas prices, the war in Iran and the cost of living crisis.
A Second Dan Sullivan in Alaska
The final days produced their share of oddities. In Alaska, Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola is 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 has said she knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot, has no interest in deceiving voters, and called the story a diversion from issues such as affordability.
In Michigan, Democrat Haley Stevens, who lost the Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, said she will vote for him even though her fiancé, civil rights attorney Jason Turkish, is backing Republican nominee Mike Rogers. “Like a lot of households across America, we’re a household divided,” Stevens told CNN.
Trump spent part of Sunday, Nov. 1, on his own looks, posting a split-screen image on Truth Social that lined up the right side of his face with the right side of Elvis Presley’s. He had posted a similar comparison in February 2024, noting the resemblance others had pointed out to him for years. That same day, a New York Times poll showed Democrats leading in all seven swing states, including an 11-point lead in Michigan.