On Monday night, Trump took an informal poll of guests at a dinner in the White House Rose Garden about their preferred candidate. “Who likes JD Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio?”. Before suggesting the Vance–Rubio ticket, he said it would be a “dream team”.
Trump’s apprentice-style huddle was a moment of levity that masked the fact that for the past few days, White House aides have been facing the difficult and still-distant question of who the Republican nominee will be.
A source familiar with the matter told WIRED that the President has indeed conducted several snap polls in recent weeks. The results have been remarkable, he says: When Trump polled donors at Mar-a-Lago, they favored Rubio. But when Trump recently polled a group of law enforcement officials, whom the White House thinks are probably more representative of regular voters, they favored Vance.
White House sources tell me that Vance remains a potential nominee, but he’s not taking anything for granted. In fact, the vice president’s top advisers began the week in seclusion to discuss political strategy, sources said.
He has also taken steps to strengthen his political team, which has remained largely the same since his days as a U.S. senator, ahead of what could be a tough midterm election for Republicans as they grapple with the politically toxic fallout of the Iran war and a House GOP spending package that earmarks $1 billion for Trump’s ballroom project, among other issues.
Vance began discussing changes to his team in January, according to two sources familiar with the matter, including adding Cliff Sims as his new national security adviser and appointing Will Martin as his deputy chief of staff.
Sims, whose new position was announced yesterday, is widely regarded in Washington as a ruthless political operator who could strengthen the vice presidency through his long experience in Trumpworld and close ties to top administration officials.
Chief among them is his relationship with CIA Director John Ratcliffe — for whom Sims has spent the last year as an outside consultant, according to multiple sources familiar with the arrangement. Sources told me they expect Vance and Ratcliffe to work closely together, dramatically increasing the vice president’s influence on national security policy.
Sims, who is not expected to start for several weeks, is also likely to begin shaping the vice president’s political message. She served first as a White House press aide and, later, as director of communications for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Of course, the person leading the National Security Council is none other than Rubio, who in addition to being Secretary of State also holds the post of National Security Advisor to Trump.
Discussion about Rubio’s potential as a 2028 candidate intensified last week when he replaced Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt to brief reporters on the Iran war. His appearance reignited several news stories about whether he might run for president.
“There is no secret plan to make Rubio president,” a Rubio aide said on condition of anonymity, adding that the secretary of state did not volunteer to conduct the briefing, which came at the behest of the White House.
Still, Rubioworld is quietly pleased with the positive coverage his briefing received, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House then posted a clip of Rubio describing his vision for America on X, which was almost like the president’s stump speech.
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