WASHINGTON – Every now and then, while talking to officials in the Oval Office, with friends over dinner, or on the patio at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump pauses and muses aloud about a subject quietly captivating the Republican Party.
What do you think? J.D. or Marco?
According to multiple people close to the president, Mr Trump asks advisers who they prefer, before frequently musing that he should just have Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio run together on the same presidential ticket in 2028.
Mr Trump’s advisers say he is simply having fun polling people, and that 2028 is not at the top of his mind at all.
Still, it would be hard for Mr Trump to ignore that lately, the two men he refers to as “kids” are taking on bigger profiles as the midterm elections approach.
Last week, Mr Rubio appeared in the White House briefing room, affably fielding questions on the Iran war.
Then he travelled to Italy, popping up alongside Pope Leo XIV.
Mr Rubio also met with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, who, like Leo, has faced diatribes from Mr Trump over opposition to the war. Next, Mr Rubio will travel to China with the president.
As Mr Rubio did his best to charm reporters back in Washington, the White House political operation sent Mr Vance to a factory in Des Moines, Iowa, to help support a vulnerable House Republican, representative Zach Nunn. While onstage, Mr Vance launched into a well-honed attack against Democratic Party policies.
Their dueling appearances have generated new speculation about whether Rubio might eventually challenge Mr Vance, the presumed front-runner, in a race for the Republican presidential nomination.
According to several people close to both men, Mr Vance and Mr Rubio do not want to be seen as competing against each other for the 2028 presidential nomination.
Others said that it was too early to know how the race would shape up.
Either way, the nomination remains Mr Vance’s to lose. He is unpopular, with an approval rating sitting at 35 per cent in the most recent Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll.
But according to a Pew survey taken this year, Mr Vance is a far more recognizable figure to American voters than most other Trump administration figures.
According to Pew, 75 per cent of Republican voters have favorable views of Mr Vance, compared with 64 per cent who have favorable views of Mr Rubio. And 19 per cent of Republican voters have never heard of the secretary of state. NYTIMES
