GOP circles see Rubio gaining ground on Vance with Trump

Vice President JD Vance brushed off questions about a possible 2028 Republican ticket with Secretary of State Marco Rubio after President Donald Trump floated the pair as a political force earlier this week.

Vance was speaking alongside CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz to detail the administration's latest efforts to combat what they describe as an epidemic of public benefits fraud when he was asked about a Monday incident in which Trump conducted an informal straw poll of whether visiting law enforcement officials and other allies at a White House Rose Garden dinner preferred him or Rubio.

Vance’s response signals an effort to downplay premature campaign positioning even as attention grows around possible successors and ticket combinations.

And Vance — who compared himself to the kid in “Home Alone,” with both Trump and Rubio in China this week — had the White House campus to himself on Wednesday for an event on fraud.