Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s all-star week is fueling fresh chatter about a 2028 bid, but Trump insiders aren’t jumping on the bandwagon just yet.
Rubio’s appearance in the White House briefing room this week ignited a wave of praise across conservative media and Trumpworld. It also fueled speculation that the former 2016 presidential candidate may be emerging as a serious contender for the GOP’s post-Trump future.
Dennis Lennox, a Republican strategist based in battleground Michigan, told the Washington Examiner that “nobody who isn’t being paid to say otherwise watched Rubio’s presser and didn’t think, ‘Can’t we make him president right now?’”
Yet, even many Republicans fueling the excitement acknowledge it’s unclear whether the momentum reflects a genuine shift in the GOP’s 2028 landscape or simply the political world getting carried away after a strong media performance.
“Sometimes it’s Rubio’s day. Sometimes it’s the vice president’s day. Sometimes they’ll be onstage together,” a former senior White House official told the Washington Examiner. “The only constant is dealing with the media trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”
Republicans say Tuesday’s briefing crystallized something already brewing inside MAGA: a growing belief that Rubio has evolved from an establishment-minded senator once mocked by Trump as “Little Marco” into a polished messenger for America First.
“I just think [2028] is Rubio’s time,” one veteran Republican operative, who worked on two of Trump’s presidential campaigns, told the Washington Examiner. “That’s not a knock against the vice president. I just think — when you compare Rubio from yesterday to where he was in 2016, debating President Trump, he’s like a totally different person. He’s gotten his hands dirty. He’s showing what MAGA can be after Trump. He’s ready.”
The renewed attention has also coincided with movement in prediction markets. On Wednesday, Rubio overtook Vice President JD Vance and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) as the most likely winner of the 2028 presidential election on Kalshi. However, Polymarket still gives Vance better odds of winning, with Rubio in a close third behind Newsom.
Even college football legend Urban Meyer, a close friend and supporter of Trump, joined what one former Trump White House official jokingly described as the “Marco love-fest.” On Wednesday, Meyer posted a clip from Rubio’s briefing in which the secretary outlined his “hope for America.”
“My hope for America is what it’s always been. I think it’s the hope, I hope, we all share. We want it to continue to be the place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything, where you’re not limited by the circumstances of your birth, by the color of your skin, by your ethnicity, but frankly, it’s a place where you are able to overcome challenges and achieve your full potential,” Rubio said in the one-minute video.
Rubio’s government X account posted the same exchange, with some enhanced graphic work, granting the clip a campaign ad-esque feel.
But even as Rubio dominated the conversation this week, a longtime, out-of-government adviser to Trump told the Washington Examiner that one good press briefing was unlikely to seal the 2028 GOP nomination for any candidate. Instead, the adviser said Trump would make his own decision on who to back.
“Nobody at the White House is sitting down and tracking who got better coverage on any given day, and President Trump certainly isn’t letting social media influence who he’ll eventually pick as his successor when he leaves office.”
RUBIO’S WHITE HOUSE MOMENT OFFERS GLIMPSE OF AMERICA FIRST AFTER TRUMP
“He’s been abundantly clear there — JD and Marco, Marco and JD,” they added. “You put those two on the ticket, and it’s eight more years of Republicans in the White House.”
Earlier this week, the president successfully backed primary challengers against five Republican Indiana state senators who opposed his push for mid-decade congressional redistricting, a reminder that any conversation about 2028 still revolves heavily around Trump’s political movement and whoever ultimately inherits it.