Overview
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Vanity Fair that if Vice President J.D. Vance runs for president, Vance would be the GOP nominee and Rubio would be among the first to support him.
- White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was quoted saying the 2028 nomination would be Vance’s if he seeks it, but she later denounced the profile as a disingenuously framed hit piece.
- Rubio and other officials publicly defended Wiles, accusing Vanity Fair of stripping comments of context and manipulating images to cast the White House team negatively.
- Vance has not announced a 2028 bid, placing the deference from senior administration figures in the realm of conditional signaling rather than a formal campaign move.
- President Trump previously floated a potential Vance–Rubio pairing for 2028, reflecting his continued influence over GOP succession talk despite constitutional term limits.