President Donald Trump used his opening speech at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting to compare, contrast, and rhapsodize the two men most talked about as his likely successor.
In a characteristically unscripted and winding speech to world leaders gathered for the Thursday meeting of Trump’s newly founded Board of Peace, the president dissected the various tactics used by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“JD been great — gets a little bit tough on occasion,” Trump said. “We gotta slow him down just a little bit on occasion. He says his mind.”
“Then we have the opposite extreme. We have your friend sitting in the back — your best friend sitting in the back,” Trump teased to Vance. “Marco does it with a velvet glove — but it’s a kill. The result is the same, they do it very differently.”
The president heaped praise upon Rubio for his appearance at the Munich Security Conference earlier this week, where he spoke about the “shared history” and deep “bonds” that tie the United States to Europe.
“We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir,” Rubio told the European leaders on Feb. 14.
The speech received widespread praise from Europeans, who characterized it as softer and more friendly in tone than speeches from other U.S. officials.
“This was, for me, very reassuring to listen to him,” European Union Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said in reaction to the address. “We know that in the administration, some have a harsher tone on these topics. But the Secretary of State was very clear. He said, ‘We want strong Europe in the Alliance,’ and this is what we are working for intensively in the European Union.”
It was a markedly different response than that received by Vance when he outraged the continent in the months following Trump’s inauguration — accusing them of suppressing free speech and ignoring the rightward shift among their electorates.
The vice president was cheered by right-wing voters and political parties in Europe but condemned by elected leaders for rudely meddling in foreign affairs.
Trump joked about the praise Rubio received from the Europeans during his speech at the Board of Peace meeting, joking that he “almost terminated [Rubio’s] employ because they were saying ‘Why can’t Trump do this?’ — I do! But I say it differently.”
“The acclaim [Rubio] has gotten, and the acclaim JD gets is great. We have smart people,” the president said.
Vance and Rubio have both been touted as possible Republican presidential candidates for 2028 because Trump is term-limited. Although there have been attempts to pit the pair as rivals, Vance insists Rubio is his closest friend in the administration. Rubio, meanwhile, has indicated that he would not stand in the way of Vance should the vice president decide to run. Trump, for his part, has floated the pair as a formidable Republican ticket.
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Trump insisted to the audience that he had “nothing to do with” the decision to install his name on the facade of the U.S. Institute of Peace building.
He claimed that Rubio and Vance had made the decision without his knowledge, adhering “Donald J. Trump” above the venue’s sign late last year.
