President Trump reportedly shifting his support from Vice President Vance to Secretary of State Rubio to lead the Republican Party in 2028.By World Israel News StaffPresident Donald Trump has privately raised doubts about whether Vice President JD Vance can carry the MAGA movement into the next presidential election, while increasingly comparing him with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a New York Times report published on Saturday.The report said Trump has repeatedly asked aides and allies whether Vance “has what it takes to go all the way,” usually answering that he is not certain.The questioning does not amount to a break with Vance, whom Trump continues to empower on major policy and political fights, but it has turned the Vance-Rubio rivalry into one of the earliest tests of the Republican Party’s post-Trump future.Vance is widely viewed as the default front-runner for the 2028 Republican nomination because he is vice president and remains popular with much of Trump’s base.Rubio, however, has become one of Trump’s most visible Cabinet members, serving as secretary of state and holding a central role in national security policy.Trump has privately asked people which man they prefer, at times framing the choice as “Who likes JD Vance?” and “Who likes Marco Rubio?” The president has stopped short of endorsing either man.The New York Times reported that Trump has told allies Vance has never won a difficult race without his help, pointing to the Ohio Senate race in which Trump’s endorsement helped Vance secure the Republican nomination and win the seat.Trump has also brought up the number of vacations Vance has taken, his initial opposition to the war with Iran and moments when the vice president did not appear presidential, including when Vance fumbled Ohio State’s national championship trophy at a White House event.Trump has also joked at Vance’s expense in public and private. At a breakfast with Republican senators in November, Trump compared Vance unfavorably with officials who work under Chinese President Xi Jinping.“Why don’t you behave like that?” Trump asked Vance, according to the Times. “JD doesn’t behave like that! JD butts into conversations! I want to have that for at least a couple of days. OK, JD?”White House officials rejected the suggestion that Trump is turning against his vice president.“Vice President Vance has done a remarkable job of helping implement the president’s America First agenda,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement to the Times.“There has been no vice president in history who has been more empowered, and that is a reflection of the strong trust and relationship between the two.”Cheung said “false media narratives from unknown and unnamed sources” did not reflect the relationship between Trump and Vance.Donald Trump Jr. also defended Vance, saying through a spokesman that his father often praises the vice president’s combativeness.“My father always brings up how JD is a savage and annihilates the fake news,” Trump Jr. said. “Interviews, rallies, podcasts — he shows up and performs and that’s what my father cares about.”Publicly, Vance has shied away from policy disagreements with Trump.Despite earlier reservations about the Iran war, Vance has defended the president’s decision and taken on critics of the administration, including conservatives uneasy about foreign intervention.Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s longtime pollster, said Trump selected Vance in 2024 because he wanted a fighter for the MAGA agenda.The president saw Vance as “a MAGA warrior who would go out every day and fight for the things the president wanted,” Fabrizio said. “He knew that, and that was exactly what he got.”Still, the Iran war has complicated Vance’s standing with some anti-interventionist conservatives who had seen him as one of their most important allies.Former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had supported Vance for the vice-presidential slot but has since fallen out with Trump, said Vance would have difficulty rebuilding trust with Republicans opposed to the war.“He is no longer in a place where he can hang on to his former reputation,” Greene told the Times. “There’s nothing that can protect him anymore.”Rubio, meanwhile, has gained influence inside the administration. He spends frequent time with Trump on foreign policy matters, travels with him on Air Force One and has bonded with the president during weekends in Florida. His allies have also gained power in the national security apparatus, with longtime Rubio aide Mike Needham recently promoted to a senior White House national security role.Recent polling has added to the sense that Rubio is becoming a serious rival to Vance.An Emerson College poll cited by the New York Post found Vance leading Rubio by only one point among Republican voters, 36% to 35%, after Rubio surged sharply from earlier levels of support.Trump has previously said Vance was “most likely” to be his political heir, citing his role as vice president, but he has also praised Rubio and floated the possibility of a Vance-Rubio ticket.In an Oval Office interview this month, Trump was asked who was best positioned to inherit his movement.“Whoever gets this is going to be very important,” Trump said. “And if you get the wrong person: disaster.”Vance was in the room as Trump gave the answer.The post Trump souring on Vance as his political heir – report appeared first on World Israel News.