Who does Donald Trump want to succeed him as president? That’s a frequently bandied-about question these days, with Trump known to ask friends and donors whether they prefer Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
This week, per The Daily Mail, Trump appeared to be mocking Vance.
“‘I thought you did a great job two weeks ago. You know why? Because I’m here,” Trump said of the Secret Service, in reference to the recent White House Correspondents Association Dinner assassination attempt.
‘But I will be the one to find fault if I think there was fault,” the president said. “They had great professional people, and they came out, and within seconds, I saw them take JD by the shoulders and lift him up like he was a little boy.”
Trump takes brutal shot at ‘little boy’ JD Vance as he openly flaunts support for Marco Rubio https://t.co/Det8M3IukS
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) May 12, 2026
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“‘I said, ‘How come they didn’t lift me up so fast?” JD got ripped out of the chair, that was the view of the week.'”
Then, perhaps even more unfortunately for the vice president, Trump came right out and asked who should succeed him as president.
‘Who likes JD Vance?’ and ‘Who likes Marco Rubio?,” Trump asked the crowd. ” ‘Is it gonna be JD? Is it gonna be someone else? I don’t know.” He went to suggest that perhaps Vance and Rubio should run together.
“Sounds like a good ticket,” Trump said of a potential Vance/Rubio pairing, although he wasn’t clear about which of them would be on top of the ticket. Rubio did say, last year, that he would not run for president if Vance did, and as a cabinet secretary, Rubio would likely need to resign in order to run a presidential campaign.
“‘By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team, but these are minor details,” Trump added. “That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance. But you know… I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate.”
There’s another takeaway from this talk: It appears Trump has backed off of any ambitions to pursue a third term as president.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
