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.
