President Donald Trump may have dropped his biggest clue yet about who he intends to back for president in 2028.
The 80-year-old president has long floated both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as possible MAGA heirs, while refusing to publicly pick a favorite.
But he clearly has an idea of who might inherit his gilded Oval Office, according to Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, the forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.
After Trump redecorated the Oval Office with his tacky gold embellishments, which he sometimes affixed himself with superglue, someone asked him about the likelihood that a future president would undo his interior design work, according to the book, which was obtained by the Associated Press.
The reality TV star-turned-president offered a revealing response: “Cubans love gold.”
Rubio, 55, was born in Miami, Florida, to Cuban parents who immigrated to the U.S. two years before Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist revolution.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s fondness for Rubio is well-documented, having declared earlier this year that he would go down as “the best secretary of state in the country’s history.” Trump has also given Rubio the additional role of national security adviser after dismissing Mike Waltz last year.
Vance, meanwhile, appears to have a more complicated relationship with his boss.
The vice president found himself in an awkward position this year as Trump invaded Venezuela and launched his war on Iran, running counter to the 42-year-old’s long-standing opposition to foreign entanglements.
Trump has repeatedly refused to say whether Vance would make a good successor, even when the vice president was in the same room with him.
Regime Change describes how, when Trump, Vance, and Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries met in the Oval Office last year, Trump showed off his “Trump 2028” baseball caps, according to the AP.
Jeffries gestured at Vance and asked, “How does he feel about that?”
Trump responded, “Ah, he’s fine. He doesn’t care,” adding, “We’re giving him a little more training.”
Vance, according to the book, only offered a terse: “No comment.”
Trump frequently says he would like to see Vance and Rubio run a joint campaign—without clarifying who he envisions at the top of the ticket. Instead, he has been pitting them against each other, frequently asking Republican donors, his advisers, and dinner guests whether Vance or Rubio should run in 2028.
