“He doesn’t want to do the job,” Ossoff said of Trump’s presidential responsibilities. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie [Harp] on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.”

Trump soon fired back, mocking Ossoff’s appearance and comparing the senator to the television character Pee-wee Herman.

The exchange underscored part of what has made Ossoff increasingly appealing to some Democrats online: a willingness to confront Trump directly at a moment when the party is searching for leaders capable of effectively countering the president.

“He’s gotten a lot of attention for a senator running for reelection,” Democratic strategist James Carville told the Washington Examiner. “I mean, he’s a very skilled guy. You know, he saw it as an opening, and he took it. And he’s got a very bright future in American politics, to say the least.”

The moment feeds into a phenomenon that has been building for months. Supporters are circulating clips of Ossoff’s speeches, debating his prospects against other potential 2028 Democratic contenders and increasingly comparing his trajectory with Obama’s rapid rise from the Senate to the White House.

Left-wing commentator Jeremiah Johnson recently predicted that a decisive Ossoff victory in November would send efforts to recruit him for 2028 “into turbo mode.” Sarah Longwell, a former Republican strategist, posted a photo of Ossoff in June with the caption: “President-maxxing so hard.”

Ossoff has repeatedly tried to shut down the conversation.

“I have zero interest in running for president in 2028,” Ossoff said during an appearance on MS NOW, arguing that “2028 fantasy football” risks distracting Democrats from the midterm elections.

He offered the same answer during a July 23 call with reporters when asked whether his anti-corruption message was resonating beyond Georgia.

“I’m focused on Georgia, and as I’ve said, I have zero interest in running for president in 2028,” Ossoff said.

His repeated denials have done little to quiet the speculation. Democratic strategist Michael Ceraso said the phenomenon reflects both genuine excitement around Ossoff and a recurring desire within Democratic politics to recreate an earlier political moment.

“I think it’s people’s obsession of trying to create a moment because we’re in an exhausting period of time right now,” Ceraso told the Washington Examiner.

Ceraso pointed to commentators, online creators, and former political operatives who, he said, have an “obsession with nostalgia and recreating something that feels ripe.”

“They’re definitely projecting that on Jon, for good or for bad,” he said.

Part of the attraction, Ceraso argued, is the opportunity for Democrats to project the optimism associated with Obama’s early rise onto a new candidate.

“To have like that one candidate where you can project hope and change and idealism and romanticize,” Ceraso said, comparing the early enthusiasm to the beginning of a relationship, before a candidate has been subjected to the intense scrutiny of a national campaign.

“So I’m skeptical,” he said.

At the same time, Ceraso said there is evidence Ossoff’s appeal is reaching beyond people who closely follow politics. A friend of his who does not pay much attention to politics recently came across an Ossoff speech and emailed him: “Oh my God, he’s so good.”

“I think there’s something to be said about people looking for hope,” Ceraso said. “I think that’s important.”

But he cautioned against reading too much into the reaction before the midterm elections and questioned attempts to draw a direct parallel between Ossoff and Obama, arguing that the political environments are dramatically different.

Rather than trying to recreate Obama’s moment, Ceraso said Democrats should “try to create new moments.”

Brad Bannon, another Democratic strategist, was less skeptical about where the speculation could ultimately lead.

“A senator running for reelection in 2026 is not going to announce to voters that he’s planning on turning around and running for president in 2028, but he has plenty of people who will do it for him, so it’s not a real problem,” Bannon told the Washington Examiner.

Bannon argued Ossoff could find himself particularly well positioned once the midterm elections are over because Democrats currently lack a prohibitive 2028 front-runner.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) may begin with greater national name recognition, Bannon said, but none has locked down the field.

“It’s quite possible some candidate like Ossoff or like someone else can rise out of the dust and become a serious candidate,” Bannon said. “So if I was him, I’d be exploring a presidential race now, because I think the Democratic race is wide open.”

Ossoff’s reelection campaign is another reason the speculation has accelerated. The former investigative filmmaker first won his Senate seat in a 2021 runoff, narrowly defeating Republican incumbent David Perdue. Georgia then shifted back toward Republicans in 2024, when Trump carried the state by roughly 3 percentage points.

Those results initially made Ossoff’s 2026 reelection campaign appear likely to become another nail-biter. So far, it has developed differently.

Recent polling has Ossoff, 39, holding an average lead of nearly 8 percentage points over Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), giving him a larger polling advantage than any other Senate candidate in a competitive race this cycle.

A strong victory in a battleground state could give Ossoff something many prospective 2028 contenders cannot easily claim: evidence that he can win in Trump-friendly territory. Bannon noted that Democrats have historically had success with presidential candidates from the South, pointing to former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

He also sees a more immediate geographical advantage for Ossoff: neighboring South Carolina. By Election Day, Bannon predicted, more South Carolina voters will know Ossoff because some Georgia media markets spill into the state, exposing voters to advertising from his Senate campaign.

“He’s going to have a leg up in South Carolina because, you know, he’s a neighbor,” Bannon said. “He’s the closest thing that South Carolinians have to a Democratic senator.”

The 2028 speculation is already beginning to extend beyond social media.

Ossoff has climbed sharply in prediction markets since the spring, with his chances of capturing the Democratic nomination roughly tripling and moving him into the same conversation as Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez.

Early polling is also giving supporters something to point to. An Emerson College survey testing potential 2028 contests found Ossoff ahead of both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in hypothetical general election matchups.

Ossoff’s approach to Israel and the war in Gaza could also become a defining part of any future national political profile. As Georgia’s first Jewish senator, Ossoff would have the potential to make history again as the country’s first Jewish president. But a presidential campaign would also test whether his identity and record on Israel become factors in a Democratic primary at a time when the war in Gaza has exposed deep divisions within the party.

In 2024, Ossoff was one of 19 senators to support Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) initial effort to block certain U.S. arms sales to Israel, breaking with the Biden administration.

Speaking on the Senate floor at the time, Ossoff argued Washington needed to use its leverage over its ally as the civilian toll mounted in Gaza. The vote initially appeared politically risky for a Democrat who would eventually face reelection in a battleground state. But Democrats have since moved substantially closer to Ossoff’s position, giving supporters another point of comparison with Obama, whose early opposition to the Iraq War preceded a broader shift within his party.

The prospect of a Jewish nominee also raises a broader question for Democrats as they look toward 2028: whether the party is ready to nominate its first Jewish presidential candidate amid an increasingly contentious debate over Israel.

Democratic strategists interviewed by the Washington Examiner largely dismissed the idea that Ossoff’s Jewish identity itself would present an obstacle.

“I think if we stop acknowledging these questions, like primary candidates, stop worrying about answering that question and just run for office, we’ll be in a lot better place,” Ceraso said.

Ceraso, who has worked for candidates from a variety of backgrounds, compared the question to those he encountered while working for Buttigieg’s presidential campaign about whether voters were ready to support a gay candidate.

“Just think about what you want from your candidate and whether that candidate, if they’re in office, would be the best leader possible,” Ceraso said, arguing Democrats should “let people run and let the voters decide.”

Bannon was similarly unequivocal when asked whether Democrats were prepared to nominate a Jewish candidate.

“The short answer is yes,” Bannon said, pointing out that Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who is also Jewish, is already considered another prominent potential Democratic presidential contender.

“It’s going to be an issue in the campaign,” Bannon added, before reiterating: “I think Democrats are ready.”

For now, Ossoff has a more immediate test in Georgia. But if he emerges from November with a decisive victory in one of the country’s premier battleground states, the online effort to imagine him as a presidential candidate is unlikely to disappear.

DAVID AXELROD KNOCKS JON OSSOFF OVER ‘GRATUITOUS’ NATALIE HARP JAB

And Bannon suspects Ossoff may eventually have reason to listen.

“My basic feeling about the race is completely wide open now,” Bannon said. “If you have Potomac fever, you want to live in the White House. This is the time to run.”