Vice President JD Vance has reportedly been tag-teaming the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda with one of his MAGA besties.
Vance, 41, has emerged as a key diplomat under Trump 2.0, making trips to Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy, and India in recent months as one of President Donald Trump’s top surrogates overseas.
Behind the scenes, Vance gets help shaping foreign policy from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to five people close to the two officials who spoke to Politico, describing the two men as each other’s primary sounding boards in the West Wing.
“Marco, with years and years more experience, kindly helps JD—as he does all of us,” a source told the outlet.
Rubio, 54, wears many hats, including top diplomat and national security adviser. Unofficially, he also bears the title of Vance’s best friend, which entails spending most of his time at the NSA office in the White House, “literally feet apart” from Vance’s office, instead of at the State Department headquarters, Politico reported.
“Marco is my best friend in the administration, and he and I work a lot together,” Vance earlier told the New York Post’s Pod Force One. “A lot of the good work that we’ve been able to do in this administration is because we’re all able to work together.”
Vance and Rubio “worked closely during Iran and just about any high-profile policy process,” a source close to the White House told Politico. The two officials also coordinated on the Gaza peace deal and a joint visit to the Vatican.
“I think it’s probably safe to assume they talk every day,” a White House staffer told the outlet.
The duo reportedly evolves into a trio when White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, whose office is in the same corner of the West Wing as the two officials, joins the conversation ahead of crucial conversations with Trump.
“There’s a natural alignment, right?” a source close to Rubio told Politico. “A lot of the biggest challenges the administration faces right now are these very thorny, complex foreign policy problems that we inherited, and that is a group of people who implicitly trust each other.”
Trump has repeatedly named both Vance and Rubio as his top picks for his successor.
“We have great people—I don’t need to get into that. One of them is standing right here,” the president told reporters last week, gesturing to Rubio aboard Air Force One before praising Vance. “Obviously, JD is great. The vice president is great. I’m not sure anyone would run against those two.”
But Vance appears uninterested in jostling against Rubio for the MAGA throne.
“So far, I’ve never woken up and thought to myself, ‘How do I make myself president of the United States?’ What I wake up and think to myself is, ‘How do I do a good job as vice president?” he told the Post.
“And I think Marco Rubio asks himself, ‘How do I do a good job as Secretary of State?’ And that should be the question that each of us keeps on asking ourselves.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Vance’s office and the White House for comment.
Vance told Politico: “President Trump has incredible confidence in Marco Rubio who dutifully supports the president’s vision and works tirelessly to accomplish our foreign policy goals. Marco is reliable, incredibly competent and a true asset to the Administration.”
The post JD Vance Getting Policy Help From His MAGA Bestie appeared first on The Daily Beast.
