What to Know
Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday brushed aside questions about whether President Donald Trump is positioning him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as rivals to succeed the president in the White House, but his choice of words raised eyebrows given Trump’s history as a reality television star.
At a Rose Garden dinner for law enforcement earlier this week, Trump polled the crowd on their preferences between the two men. “Who likes JD Vance?” Trump asked, drawing applause, before asking the same about Rubio. “All right, sounds like a good ticket,” Trump said. “By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team, but these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance.”
At a Wednesday press conference on federal anti-fraud efforts, Vance was asked why he thinks Trump keeps raising the subject.
The Cincinnati Republican said he didn’t think it showed a serious effort by Trump to anoint a successor.
“I just don’t think it sounds like the president of the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his apprentice,” said Vance — an apparent reference to Trump’s long-running NBC reality show The Apprentice, in which contestants competed for Trump’s favor.
“I just think that’s not at all what you would expect the president to do,” Vance continued.
Vance said he thought Trump was simply indulging a lifelong fascination with politics.
“I think it’s natural for him to joke around with us a little bit, to play around with the idea,” he said, adding that Trump “is as focused as any of us on making sure we do as good of a job now for the American people.”
When another reporter asked directly what he thought about the prospect of a future Vance-Rubio ticket, the vice president was equally dismissive.
“There are a few topics that I want to talk about less than what office I’m going to run for years down the road, when I’m having a good time and trying to do good work in the job that the American people already elected me to do,” said Vance.
He insisted he and Rubio are both focused “on accomplishing the American people’s business right now.”
“I love Marco,” Vance declared. “I think he’s a great Secretary of State. He’s become a very, very dear friend.”
“If I was the American people, there are a few things that I would hate more than a person who’s barely been in one office for a year and a half is angling for a job two and a half years down the road,” said Vance. “Let’s do a good job now.”
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Sabrina Eaton; cleveland.com; (TNS) || ©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
