Donald Trump polled attendees of a Rose Garden Club dinner about potential successors JD Vance and Marco Rubio, with one coming out on top.
Trump, 79, told the audience gathered for Police Week at the White House that while the field of possible Democratic candidates was lackluster, Republicans had more to offer. He then decided on the spot to ask for audible feedback about Vance and Rubio.
“Who’s it going to be? Is it going to be JD? Is it going to be somebody else? I don’t know. Does anybody have—OK, let’s go. You ready?“ he began.
“Who likes JD Vance?” he asked. A solid round applause for the vice president, who was among those in attendance, followed. Trump later described it as “big.”
“Who likes Marco Rubio?” he followed up. Trump’s mention of the secretary of state, who was not at the dinner, generated a lighter round of applause, which he called “very nice.”
“Alright, sounds like a good ticket,” Trump responded. “That was a perfect ticket. By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team, but these are minor details. That does not mean that you have my endorsement under any circumstance... I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Vance’s office and the State Department for comment.
Trump’s public comments on Monday seem to be a version of what he has been doing privately. Trump, CNN reported last month, was asking friends and advisers to compare and contrast Vance, 41, and Rubio, 54.
Though Vance emerged as the winner of the CPAC straw poll in March, Rubio is clearly in a position to be Trump’s successor, since the president is openly discussing that possibility.
Additionally, Trump sent Rubio—not Catholic convert Vance—to the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo XIV last week, and it was Rubio who filled in for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for last Tuesday’s press briefing.
Meanwhile, Vance’s trip to Hungary to support Viktor Orban’s re-election bid didn’t achieve the desired result, nor did his peace talks with Iran in Pakistan last month. Vance was also left off Time magazine’s list of the most influential people of 2026. Rubio wasn’t.
Former Trump White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin weighed in on the dynamics between the two on The View last week.
“I think that every time Marco Rubio speaks, JD Vance is kind of in the fetal position,” she said, “because that is a much more formidable Republican candidate.”
