Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
U.S. President Donald Trump opted not to choose between Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential successors in the 2028 Republican presidential primary during a Feb. 4 interview with NBC News.
The president had, on earlier occasions, suggested that Rubio and Vance would be the top Republican contenders for 48th president of the United States.
In the NBC News interview, Trump was asked who should be at the top of the 2028 presidential primary ticket.
“Well, I don’t want to get into this. We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job,” Trump said.
“I don’t want to have an argument … I don’t want to use the word fight, it wouldn’t be a fight. But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic.
“I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other. I think they’re both of very high intelligence. I mean … they will do shows. They will do Joe Rogan, as opposed to the opponent not doing it because they couldn’t handle it.
“They’re both very capable. I do think this—the combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten.”
When asked whether he would endorse someone in the 2028 primaries, Trump replied he “hadn’t even thought of it” but would be inclined to do so.
Rubio ran as a Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential race, competing against Trump, who went on to win his first term. Since joining the second Trump administration, the 54-year-old has been active on multiple fronts.
In addition to serving as secretary of state, Rubio was appointed acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in February 2025 and national security adviser in May 2025. In July of that year, he confirmed the shutdown of USAID, highlighting that foreign assistance provided by the agency failed to deliver results for Americans.
Earlier, in February 2025, Panama’s president said his country would not renew its Belt and Road Initiative agreement with China after a meeting with Rubio, who called on the country to address the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in the region, in what was one part of the Trump administration’s assertive moves in the Western Hemisphere.
Vance, who has been active in both domestic and international roles, was instrumental in blocking Democrats from restricting Trump’s ability to continue military action in Venezuela, casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate that defeated the proposal. The 41-year-old has also emerged as a prominent defender and advocate of the administration’s “America First” agenda.
Both Rubio and Vance served as Republican senators prior to joining the Trump administration last year. Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate from Florida in 2010, while Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 2022.
Regarding a potential 2028 presidential ticket, Vance said in a media interview in October 2025 that he wants to perform well in the current administration before considering such a proposal.
Meanwhile, Rubio backed Vance as a great pick for the next presidential election without ruling himself out of the race.
In December, conservative organization Turning Point USA, now headed by Erika Kirk, endorsed Vance for 2028.
According to a Harvard CAPS Harris Poll fielded on Jan. 28 and 29, Vance “leads convincingly” among Republican voters as their next candidate for president. Vance got 53 percent of the polled votes, far higher than Rubio’s 17 percent, which put him in the third spot. Donald Trump Jr. took the second spot with a 21 percent share.
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