Trump elevates Marco Rubio as a potential successor -- and as a 2028 rival to Vance

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

94% : "You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who's fantastic," Trump replied when Kristen Welker asked him what gives him confidence that his MAGA movement will continue once he's out of office.
81% : There's a lot of them that are great," Trump said.
71% : And while Trump seemed to put Vance and Rubio on an equal 2028 plane in the "Meet the Press" interview and stopped short of anointing Vance as the favorite, he indicated that the nomination could be Vance's to lose.
70% : Four senior administration officials told NBC News that Rubio spends as much time as he can at the White House to be close to Trump, while a person close to him said he has become a regular at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump spends most weekends.
67% : "President Trump sees them as both very loyal and very talented, I think that's very fair to say," a senior Trump adviser said.
66% : The expanded portfolio is a signal that Rubio, according to four sources who have long advised him, is building a substantial footing that can position him well as the heir apparent to Trump -- if Vance stumbles over the next three years.
63% : " That he mentioned Rubio at all struck a senior White House aide as notable, given that it was the first time Trump had so publicly identified him as a favorable prospect.
63% : Critics have for years tried to square the Rubio of the 2016 campaign -- in which he ran as an establishment-friendly candidate known for his openness to immigration reform -- with the Rubio they now see as embracing a MAGA doctrine.
60% : Just days before the "Meet the Press" shoutouts, Rubio sat next to Trump at an hourslong Cabinet meeting wearing a matching blue suit and red tie.
60% : "He showed the one thing Trump values above any other quality," said a longtime Republican operative who has previously supported Rubio -- "loyalty to Trump while going out preaching the gospel of Trump.
59% : In practically the same breath in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press," Trump suggested national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance -- in that order -- as potential candidates.
57% : "But it's something that, to the best of my knowledge, you're not allowed to do.
56% : " In the years leading up to Trump's second presidential bid, Rubio gravitated toward the school of right-wing thought that has risen in the party -- attending National Conservatism conferences popular with then-colleagues like Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who are in alignment on several key policy areas in which Trump has led the charge in shifting GOP orthodoxy.
50% : But Trump backed away from the third-term talk in the "Meet the Press" interview, suggesting he would be comfortable going into the history books as an "eight-year president.
47% : " Also key to Rubio's ascension in Trump's inner circle has been how much face time he has spent around Trump both in the White House and at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
46% : And the development, while not exactly surprising to anyone aware of Rubio's long-held White House ambitions, quickly injected the elements of competition and rivalry that Trump has long enjoyed fostering among those who work for him.
42% : His rise was punctuated last week when Trump appointed him as his interim national security adviser.
40% : I have never had requests so strong as that," Trump said, referring to tactics that could circumvent the Constitution.
37% : They viewed each other as fellow converts to Trump's movement and as ideological peers on issues that Trump had reoriented Republicans around, like trade.
33% : " Early polls taking stock of a potential 2028 Republican primary field show Vance with a wide plurality, assuming Trump doesn't try to run again, and Rubio in the single digits.

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