President Trump compared Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the first Board of Peace meeting in Washington on February 19, 2026. Vance, he said, gets a little bit tough on occasion and has to be slowed down. Rubio, he said, does it with a velvet glove, but it is a kill. Trump then joked that Rubio’s praised speech in Munich almost got him fired: don’t do any better than you did, please, because if you do, you’re out of here.
The two men are the early Republican favorites for 2028. A McLaughlin poll of likely voters, released November 5, 2026, put Vance ahead of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 49 to 39 and Rubio ahead of her 48 to 38 in early 2028 matchups.
Video: The White House
