Marco Rubio heads to the Vatican as 2028 presidential buzz ramps up

As he heads to a critical meeting to smooth tensions with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is riding a hot streak.

He may not have had a response handy when asked his DJ name, but Rubio was otherwise calm, cool and collected during a White House press briefing stand-in appearance on Tuesday that led to #Rubio2028 trending on X.

It was a good day for Rubio. Despite President Donald Trump's flagging approval rating and an ongoing war in Iran that has sent gas prices soaring, Rubio has emerged as a rising star and appears to be separating himself from another projected 2028 hopeful, Vice President JD Vance.

"Rubio is happy as a pig in sh-- at this White House briefing. Careful [Vice President] @JDVance, Marco wants the top job and is coming for your (extremely unpopular) a--." Tommy Vietor, a co-host of Pod Save America and former spokesman for President Barack Obama, wrote on X as Rubio held court from the White House briefing room podium.

Rubio, who represented Florida in the Senate from 2011 to 2025 and mounted a failed bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, was filling in at the press briefing for White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave and will be covered by a rotating group of administration officials for as long as she's out.

It was a seemingly effortless performance from the Trump critic-turned-ally — formerly referred to pejoratively as "Little Marco" by the president — who has made a name for himself by wearing many hats in the second Trump administration. At various points during his tenure atop the State Department, Rubio has served as acting national security advisor, acting archivist of the U.S. and acting director of the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

Rubio further showcased his range over the weekend, DJing at a family wedding in a moment captured on a video that was shared to X. Asked what his DJ name was by a reporter at the briefing, Rubio parried: "My DJ name? You're not ready for my DJ name."

Rubio briefed for close to an hour, cracking jokes, shifting seamlessly to Spanish and adroitly fielding inquiries from reporters on the war, gas prices, and ongoing tensions with Cuba.

He at times bordered on cringe, invoking 1990s rap lyrics when he called Iranian leaders "insane in the brain," (Cypress Hill) and telling them to "check themselves before they wreck themselves" (Ice Cube). But in general, he distilled the Trump administration's at-times confusing messaging on the Iran war in a digestible way.

And though the president reneged on an initiative to guide ships through the Strait of of Hormuz hours after Rubio touted it to the press, Rubio's performance elicited largely rave reviews on the political right.

"Marco Rubio is showing the nation & the world what we've known about him for decades! Rubio is one of the most eloquent, articulate, & incredibly capable statesmen of our times. President Trump made an EXCELLENT choice in him. He proves it every single day!" Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez posted to X.

Vance. meanwhile, was roughly 1,000 miles away, making his first stop in Iowa since becoming vice president.

His appearance in the Hawkeye state, where he'd traveled to support Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who is locked in a difficult reelection race, played differently than Rubio's in Washington.

A clip of Vance getting lost in the pages of his speech and forgetting the name of Nunn's challenger circulated on social media.

Sarah Longwell, a political pundit and publisher of the conservative, anti-Trump news site The Bulwark, has been leading weekly focus groups that regularly ask Republicans who they want to inherit the party in 2028.

She wrote in The Atlantic this week that, increasingly, members of those groups are expressing a preference for Rubio over Vance.

"Although Vance might seem like a more natural MAGA heir, many Trump voters see Rubio as a stabilizing force who comes off a lot better than many of his peers inside the administration, including the vice president," Longwell wrote. 

Rubio now heads to the Vatican to meet with the first U.S.-born pope, who had been critical of some Trump administration policies. Rubio and Vance are both Catholic. Rubio was raised Catholic, while Vance converted as an adult.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Pope Leo, saying on Monday the Supreme Pontiff's view on foreign policy is "endangering a lot of Catholics," on an appearance on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

Rubio, at the briefing, denied the trip was an attempt to thaw the relationship.

"It's a trip we had planned from before and obviously we had some stuff that happened. There's a lot to talk about with the Vatican," he told reporters.