WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ruled out running for president in 2028 if Vice President JD Vance seeks the GOP nomination.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told author Chris Whipple in an interview published Tuesday by Vanity Fair.
Rubio, 54, and Vance, 41, are widely viewed as the top two potential contenders to succeed term-limited President Trump on the Republican side.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he will defer to Vice President JD Vance in the 2028 election. AP
Vance is “going to be our nominee” if he runs, Rubio said. REUTERSTrump, 79, sought to play matchmaker earlier this year, suggesting in public that the pair run together — without saying whom he’d like to see lead the GOP ticket.
“We have JD obviously — the vice president is great. Marco’s great. I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two. I think if they formed a group, it would be unstoppable,” Trump said while traveling in Asia this past October.
Trump has also suggested he may find a way around the Constitution’s two-term limit and run again, but at other times admitted that the barrier likely is insurmountable.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, for her part, insisted to Whipple that Trump has no intention of flouting the 22nd Amendment, “but he sure is having fun with it.”
Rubio made the remark to Vanity Fair as part of a profile of White House chief of staff Susie Wiles. Getty ImagesRubio, a former Florida senator and onetime Trump critic, made the remark to Whipple as part of a lengthy profile of Wiles.
During a photo shoot for the magazine, Vance reportedly made light of speculation about 2028, saying to a photographer: “I’ll give you $100 for every person you make look really shitty compared to me. And $1,000 if it’s Marco.”
Wiles, a fellow Sunshine Stater, is quoted in the profile as saying Vance’s own conversion from Trump critic to staunch supporter was “sort of political.”
Whipple is known as an authority on the role of White House chief of staff and authored the 2017 book “The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency.”
Wiles expressed regret Tuesday morning for participating in the profile, ripping Whipple’s article on X as “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”
