Trump & Hegseth gave Mark Kelly a huge 2028 gift

If you’ve ever thought about running for president, don’t. You probably don’t have what it takes.

That’s not because you’re inherently unqualified — hell, if Donald Trump can get elected, it sure feels like anyone can, and I have no doubt you’d probably do a better job. But a good presidential candidate must have a few important things going for him or her that would make running for president nearly impossible for most people.

They have to have money, for one, or access to people with lots of it. Some relevant experience helps, usually in politics, law, or the military. Trump is, in fact, the only U.S. president to have never held public office or a military position when he was elected in 2016.

A good personality isn’t a must — see Richard Nixon. But there is one intangible that is a must, and it’s nearly impossible to buy it or create it overnight: Name ID.

Trump, for all his moral, ethical, and intellectual failings, was able to trade mostly on his name and brand to get elected the first time, convincing a not small number of voters that, despite his lack of political experience — or interest in policy — he was the right man for the job.

A new crop of Democrats is eyeing the 2028 election, each hoping they have the right combination of things to get across the finish line. But one just got a huge boost in name ID — and from Trump himself.

If Sen. Mark Kelly is thinking of running for president — and there are plenty of indications he is, including his own words — he couldn’t buy the exposure he got this week.

In a one-two punch to the administration, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts at punishing Kelly for a video in which he and five other Dem lawmakers urged military service members to not follow illegal orders, were swatted down.

The video was released by Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Reps. Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan, and Jason Crow — all veterans of the military or intelligence community — as Trump was authorizing constitutionally-questionable strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and deploying troops to American cities to combat crime and illegal immigration.

What they said in the video was a simple and irrefutable fact: “You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders.”

Trump, deep in his authoritarian era and having no use for subtlety, clapped back and called the video “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Ever the loyal foot soldier, Hegseth followed by announcing he’d look to strip Kelly of his Navy rank and reduce his military pension.

But on Thursday, Judge Richard Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that was a violation of Kelly’s First Amendment rights. In the words of James Madison, “Duh.”

Earlier in the week, another blow — former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, now the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, failed to get an indictment against Kelly and the other lawmakers because they couldn’t get a grand jury to support it. So much for the ham sandwich theory.

So Trump went 0-2 at rebuking Kelly, but for Kelly, it couldn’t have gone any better. Trump made him a Democratic hero, a free speech warrior, and most importantly, he gave him weeks of free media, his face and name splashed across the cable news shows.

In other words, Trump’s authoritarian impulses, his Justice Department’s incompetence, and his defense secretary’s thin skin helped set Kelly up for a real shot at a presidential nomination, elevating him in stature and boosting his name ID.

The other Dems eyeing 2028 wish they were so lucky.

S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.