Donald Trump has once again refused to endorse Vice President JD Vance as his preferred successor while he gushed about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s performance on the world stage.
For the second time in less than two weeks, the president declined to give Vance his wholehearted backing for the next presidential race, instead opting to sidestep a firm commitment while he still has three years in office.
Speaking aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington, a reporter asked Trump about the positive reviews Rubio received at the Munich Security Council over the weekend—and whether there was any scenario in which he would support him at the top of the Republican ticket in 2028.
“That’s something I don’t have to worry about now,” Trump said.
“I’ve got three years to go, so it’s something I don’t have to worry (about). JD is fantastic, and Marco is. They’re both fantastic, I think, really. And I think Marco did a great job in Munich.”
The comments underscored the ongoing rivalry between Vance and Rubio, both of whom are seen as the likely frontrunners for the White House when Trump’s second term ends.
But while the vice president has been a loyal ally, Trump’s response once again avoided a wholehearted endorsement as MAGA’s heir apparent, paving the way for a potentially hard-fought contest between the pair when jockeying for the 2028 election begins in earnest after November’s midterms.
Rubio, meanwhile, has played an increasingly prominent role in Trump’s cabinet, not only as secretary of state but also as the president’s national security adviser and the acting head of the National Archives.
He has helped to spearhead Trump’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy, and is the person the president bizarrely declared would be “running” Venezuela following the capture of dictator Nicholas Maduro earlier this year.
Rubio’s appearance at Munich also stood in stark contrast to Vance’s contentious speech at last year’s conference, when the vice president accused Europe of suppressing freedom of speech and democracy.
It also struck a more measured tone than Trump’s aggressive speech at the World Economic Forum, when he riled world leaders by pushing his bid to seize Greenland.
“We belong together,” Rubio said over the weekend, eventually receiving a standing ovation.
“For us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
However, some observers also noted that he proclaimed a “golden age” in U.S. relations—not with America’s traditional allies, Germany or France, but with Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban, who is closely aligned to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump was nonetheless full of praise for the performance, unlike his assessment of Democrats who also appeared at the conference, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
“Marco was fantastic in Munich!” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week.
“AOC and Newscum were an embarrassment to our Nation. For one thing they shouldn’t be talking badly about the U.S.A., especially on ‘foreign soil.’ They made fools of themselves, and always will,” he added.
“Crooked Hillary merely showed her anger and Trump Derangement. Really bad representatives of our now very successful Country!”
The post Trump Blows Off Vance While Gushing Over Little Marco appeared first on The Daily Beast.
