President Trump suggested Monday that Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would make a strong 2028 presidential ticket, polling the crowd at a White House dinner before stopping short of formally endorsing either man.
Speaking at a Rose Garden dinner honoring law enforcement officials during National Police Week, Mr. Trump asked guests to cheer for their preferred candidate. Mr. Vance, who attended the event, drew a stronger reaction than Mr. Rubio, who was not present.
“Who likes J.D. Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio? All right. Sounds like a good ticket. J.D. is a perfect — that was a perfect ticket,” the president said. “By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team. But these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance. But you know … I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate.”
Neither Mr. Vance nor Mr. Rubio has formally announced a 2028 campaign. Both have said publicly that their focus remains on the current administration and the upcoming midterms. Mr. Vance said last year that he was “not really focused” on 2028, adding that “if we do a good job for the American people, the politics will take care of itself.” Still, Mr. Vance has drawn widespread scrutiny as a likely contender, including a visit to Iowa last week — where Republicans will hold the first presidential caucuses in 2028 — to campaign for Rep. Zach Nunn ahead of the midterms.
Mr. Rubio ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but suspended his campaign after losing the primary to Mr. Trump. He returned to the Senate before joining the second Trump administration. Mr. Vance was midway through his first Senate term when Mr. Trump recruited him as his running mate in 2024.
In December, Mr. Rubio told Vanity Fair he would be among the first to support Mr. Vance should the vice president launch a White House bid.
Mr. Trump has continued testing public sentiment about both men. GOP strategist Brian Seitchik, who worked on Mr. Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, said the behavior fits a familiar pattern.
“It’s very Trump to constantly do a pulse check on how folks feel about Marco versus Vance. That is very much in the president’s DNA, to get a sense of where donors are and politicos and even folks in the media,” Mr. Seitchik said. “The president is always evaluating and comparing, and he’s well aware also that, by nature, those types of questions generate competition, which anyone who’s watched ’The Apprentice’ knows he values.”
Early polling shows Mr. Vance with a meaningful lead in a hypothetical Republican primary. The prediction market Polymarket gives Mr. Vance roughly a 37% chance of winning the 2028 Republican nomination, compared to approximately 27% for Mr. Rubio, though the gap has narrowed in recent months amid the ongoing conflict in Iran.
In March, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Rubio to reporters, saying he expected the secretary of state to go down as the best in the nation’s history.
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