Marco Rubio is hiding from the spotlight on the Iran negotiations, quietly waiting to see whether JD Vance ‘self-destructs’ in his attempt to resolve the nuclear standoff.
The Secretary of State has taken a back seat in negotiations with Tehran, letting Vance run point in hopes the talks collapse and leave the vice president holding the bag for failed diplomacy ahead of 2028, according to a new report.
‘He is waiting to see if Vance self-destructs,’ a US official told Axios. Trump has deployed Rubio and Vance to balance competing interests across Iran, Israel, and Lebanon.
Rubio represents ‘a more pro-Israel’ stance while Vance plays the ‘Israel-skeptic,’ a top Trump adviser told Axios.
Both men disagreed internally about the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this month between the US and Iran.
Vance, along with Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, urged the President to sign the deal, arguing it would stabilize oil markets by reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lower gas prices ahead of the midterms.
Rubio, meanwhile, expressed skepticism that the Iranians would agree to a long-term deal limiting their nuclear ambitions.
The US and Iran have exchanged drone and missile fire in recent days, threatening to blow up an already fragile ceasefire as the prospect of peace in the Middle East wanes.
Marco Rubio is hiding from the spotlight on the Iran negotiations, quietly waiting to see whether JD Vance ‘self-destructs’ in his attempt to resolve the nuclear standoff
The Secretary of State has taken a back seat in negotiations with Tehran, letting Vance run point in hopes the talks collapse and leave the vice president holding the bag for failed diplomacy ahead of 2028
An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11
‘Don’t think of them as two sides of the same coin,’ an administration adviser said of Vance and Rubio. ‘They’re more like the different tools on a Swiss Army knife.’
Other officials disagreed that there are any differences between Vance and Rubio, saying they’re ‘working in concert with each other.’
‘It’s not that one has the pro-Israel bucket and the other has the anti-Israel bucket. It’s not how it works internally,’ a senior administration official said.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly also dismissed a Vance-Rubio feud adding: ‘There is one camp — President Trump’s camp — and the entire administration is fully behind the president’s efforts to ensure Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon.’
Both Vance and Rubio are widely viewed as frontrunners to inherit the MAGA mantle from Trump in 2028.
Trump himself frequently presses close advisers and donors for their read on the two men, and has publicly floated the idea that Vance and Rubio should run together in 2028 – though he refuses to say who should be at the top of the ticket.
Vance, who has cultivated a populist, non-interventionist brand, is seen by many in the GOP as the natural heir apparent.
The VP was one of the few voices within Trump’s cabinet to warn against going to war with Iran earlier this year, arguing that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz could lead to an oil crisis.
Rubio, by contrast, is positioning himself as the more traditional GOP hawk who can unite the party’s old-guard establishment with Trump’s base.
