The Japan Times - Rubio rising? Duel with Vance for 2028 heats up

In a packed White House briefing room, journalists shouted over each other in a bid to get a question from the US secretary of state.

At the same time Vice President Vance -- Rubio's most likely rival for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination -- was hundreds of miles away from the action at a political fundraiser in Oklahoma.

"Guys, this is chaos," said Rubio as reporters desperately waved their hands at him.

The 54-year-old appeared to be enjoying his time standing in for Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who is on maternity leave.

He fielded a series of questions on Iran, Cuba and China with a relaxed style and dashes of humor -- and little of the invective that Trump often unleashes in his briefing room appearances.

The self-confessed rap fan even threw in some hip-hop lyrics, declaring Iran's leaders to be, in the words of Cypress Hill, "insane in the brain."

"Rubio just wrapped up his FIRST White House Press Briefing, and he absolutely knocked it out of the park," conservative influencer Nick Sortor said on X.

"This man is a SERIOUS contender for 2028."

Could it mark the moment when Rubio's star definitively rose in the race to lead a post-Trump Republican party in two and a half years?

- 'Easter Bunny over the Tooth Fairy' -

Polling has suggested that Vance, 41, has a large lead among Republican voters.

Neither man has officially declared his intention to run -- and Rubio himself has publicly said that the "veep" is a friend and insisted that he would not run in 2028 if Vance is a candidate.

Nor has Trump yet anointed an heir to the throne of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

But in Washington there has been growing speculation that Trump increasingly favors Rubio. Vance's odds on prediction markets have collapsed in recent weeks.

While Vance's life story -- growing up in poverty in an Appalachian community beset by opioid addiction -- is tailor-made to appeal to Trump's base, he has sometimes struggled to connect with voters.

Yet Vance was not as far from the action as he may have seemed on Tuesday.

Notably, his travels took him to Iowa, the crucial midwestern state where Republicans will cast their first votes for the 2028 Republican nominee -- and which first propelled Trump towards the White House in 2016.

The Oklahoma fundraiser meanwhile reflects Vance's overlooked role as Republican National Committee finance chief -- which could help build his grip on a party that has never quite seemed to warm to him.

And he stopped in Ohio to vote in a primary in the state where he was formerly a senator -- and his son Vivek was able to cast a kids' vote in a contest between two mythical figures.

"He voted for the Easter bunny over the tooth fairy," Vance said of his son.

- 'You're not ready for my DJ name' -

Vance is still regarded with suspicion by some Trumpists.

Back in 2016 he compared his future boss to Hitler. And the former marine and anti-interventionist has kept a low profile over Trump's Iran war.

By contrast, Rubio is a long-term foreign policy hawk who has won Trump's praise over the Venezuela and Iran military operations.

It was Rubio, and not devout Catholic convert Vance, that Trump dispatched to meet Pope Leo XIV this week amid tensions over Iran.

The White House's X feed on Tuesday even seemed to lean towards Rubio, announcing his press briefing with the caption "Another job?" and posting a picture of him on dozens of channels.

If it was a try-out for the top job itself, Rubio wasn't saying.

Rubio will know that two years is an eternity in politics -- and that the last former secretary of state to run for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, suffered a stunning loss to Trump.

Instead, he was content to bask in the attention at the podium, while keeping his ambitions to himself.

That includes whether he has an alternative identity as a DJ after a video clip at the weekend showed a besuited Rubio behind the decks at a wedding even as Iran negotiations continued.

"My DJ name? You're not ready for my DJ name," he said.

K.Tanaka--JT