Trump Suggests Vance and Rubio as Possible 2028 Ticket

President Trump suggested Monday that Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would make a strong 2028 presidential ticket. Speaking at a Rose Garden dinner honoring law enforcement officials during National Police Week, the president polled the crowd on their preferences before stopping short of a formal endorsement.

Trump asked guests to cheer for their preferred candidate. Vance, who attended the event, drew a stronger reaction than 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 ... Both have said publicly that their focus remains on the current administration and the upcoming midterms. Vance has drawn attention as a likely contender after a visit to Iowa last week, where Republicans will hold the first presidential caucuses in 2028.

He campaigned there for Rep. Zach Nunn ahead of the midterms. Rubio ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 but suspended his campaign after losing the primary to Trump. He returned to the Senate before joining the second Trump administration as secretary of state.

Vance was midway through his first Senate term when Trump selected him as running mate in 2024. In December, Rubio told Vanity Fair he would be among the first to support Vance should the vice president launch a White House bid. Trump has continued testing public sentiment about both men.

GOP strategist Brian Seitchik, who worked on 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,” Seitchik said.

Early polling shows Vance with a lead in a hypothetical Republican primary. The prediction market Polymarket gives Vance roughly a 37% chance of winning the 2028 Republican nomination, compared to approximately 27% for Rubio. The gap has narrowed in recent months amid the ongoing conflict in Iran.

In March, Trump praised Rubio to reporters, saying he expected the secretary of state to go down as the best in the nation’s history.