President Donald Trump praised War Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s leadership but claimed it was too early to consider backing a 2028 White House run by the Pentagon chief.

“I think he’s doing a fantastic job, but it’s very early to talk about that,” Trump told the Washington Examiner while speaking in the Oval Office on Monday. “We have to get through the midterms, and I think he’s a very good guy. But I’ll bet there’s a lot of people considering it that you don’t know about … you have a lot of people.”