{"id":985,"date":"2026-04-01T06:24:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/985\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T06:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:24:42","slug":"vance-and-rubios-differing-postures-on-iran-war-highlight-their-challenges-ahead-of-2028-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/985\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance and Rubio’s differing postures on Iran war highlight their challenges ahead of 2028 election"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2013 As President Donald Trump assembled his Cabinet last week, he asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio<\/a> and Vice President JD Vance<\/a> to give an update on the Iran war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rubio, known for his hawkish views, gave an impassioned defense of the war, calling it \u201ca favor\u201d to the United States and the world.<\/p>\n

Vance, who has long pushed for restraint in U.S. military intervention overseas, was more sedate. He said that the U.S. now has \u201coptions\u201d it didn\u2019t have a year ago and that it is important Iran does not get a nuclear weapon \u2014 before redirecting his remarks toward wishing the troops a happy Easter.<\/p>\n

The exchange was a distillation of their diverging postures toward the war that their boss has launched<\/a> in Iran. And it comes as some would-be Republican presidential candidates begin quietly courting officials in key states like New Hampshire in the early stages of the GOP’s next nomination fight. <\/p>\n

With Vance and Rubio seen as the party’s strongest potential candidates in a 2028 primary, the two have to balance their roles in the Trump administration with their future political plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very obvious from the way that Rubio talks about Iran and the way that Vance talks about Iran that they are of different casts of mind,\u201d said Curt Mills, the executive director of \u201cThe American Conservative” magazine and a vocal critic of the war. The Cabinet meeting episode was telling, he said, because it seemed as though Vance, discussing Easter, was \u201cliterally trying to talk about anything else other than the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance’s office declined to comment. The State Department declined to comment but pointed to Rubio’s remarks last year during a Fox News Channel interview where he said he hopes Vance intends to run for president and wouldn’t rule out anything for himself. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s too soon to forecast how Republican voters might feel about the war next spring, when the 2028 contest is expected to begin in earnest, but the risks for both Vance and Rubio are acute. Rubio\u2019s full-throated support for the war could come back to haunt him depending on how the conflict develops. Vance, meanwhile, would risk accusations of disloyalty if he were to stray too far from Trump, but struggles to square an appearance of support for the war with his past comments.<\/p>\n

Vance’s restrained comments stand in contrast to Rubio’s full defense<\/p>\n

Vance, who served in the Iraq war, has said that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, but he’s long been skeptical of foreign military interventions.<\/p>\n

Trump seemed to allude that Vance may have held onto that position in private discussions about Iran, telling reporters that Vance was \u201cphilosophically a little bit different than me\u201d at the outset of the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic,” Trump said.<\/p>\n

Though Vance has been careful in how he speaks about the war, what he\u2019s not saying has been conspicuous. On a March 13 trip to North Carolina, he was twice asked by reporters if he had concerns about the conflict. Each time, he said it was important that Trump could have conversations with advisers \u201cwithout his team then running their mouths to the American media.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days later at the White House, when Vance was again asked if he had concerns, he accused the reporter of \u201ctrying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Rubio, long before he became the country\u2019s chief diplomat, he voiced support for muscular foreign policy and American intervention abroad. <\/p>\n

Days into the war, he told reporters that it was \u201ca wise decision\u201d for Trump to launch the operation, that there \u201cabsolutely was an imminent threat\u201d from Iran and that the operation \u201cneeded to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fractures are emerging in the GOP<\/p>\n

The apparent split between Rubio and Vance on the Iran war is emblematic of the divide starting to cleave within the Republican Party. A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a> found some divisions within the GOP on Iran<\/a>, with about half of Republicans saying the U.S. military action has been \u201cabout right.\u201d Relatively few Republicans, about 2 in 10, say military action has not gone far enough, while about one-quarter say it\u2019s gone too far.<\/p>\n

While some conservatives have described the war as a betrayal<\/a>, many other Republicans have cheered on the president\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

Alice Swanson, a 62-year-old who attended Vance\u2019s event in North Carolina, said she wants Vance and Rubio to run together in 2028 but favors the vice president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he fully believes and supports exactly what his convictions are,\u201d Swanson said.<\/p>\n

Swanson acknowledged, nonetheless, that Vance has been an outspoken opponent of interventionist policy but has been quieter on the subject since the war. \u201cI can see both sides,\u201d Swanson said after expressing full support for Trump\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

Tracy Brill, a 62-year-old from Rocky Mount, spoke highly of Rubio, but declared, \u201cI love JD Vance.\u201d<\/p>\n

She made it clear she sides with the president, calling the course he\u2019s taken \u201cspot on.\u201d But she defended the vice president if he seems at odds with his past statements, noting politicians do it frequently. \u201cThey\u2019ve all changed their positions at one point or another,” she said.<\/p>\n

However, Joe Ropar, attending the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, said Rubio\u2019s unequivocal support for the Iran war helped crystallize his preference for the secretary of state for 2028.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking at JD Vance for president, and it\u2019s for stuff like that,\u201d said Ropar, a 72-year-old retired military contractor from McKinney, Texas. \u201cI don\u2019t 100% trust him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Williams, of Austin, Texas, said at CPAC that both Trump and Vance are \u201ctied to this war.” The 25-year-old marketing specialist for Young Americans for Liberty is looking elsewhere for a candidate.<\/p>\n

The political risks might not be known until the field fills out <\/p>\n

Whether the war becomes a political problem for Vance and Rubio depends on who ultimately enters the GOP’s next presidential primary.<\/p>\n

While Vance and Rubio are currently considered the overwhelming front-runners, former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu expects a half dozen high-profile Republicans to enter the contest. <\/p>\n

Sununu and former RNC Committeewoman Juliana Bergeron told The Associated Press that multiple Republican presidential prospects have reached out to them in recent weeks to discuss the political landscape in the state that traditionally hosts the opening presidential primary; they declined to name them.<\/p>\n

Republican strategist Jim Merrill, a top New Hampshire adviser for Rubio’s 2016 presidential bid, predicted that Iran would become a flashpoint in 2028 \u2014 just as the Iraq war was for Democrats in 2004 and 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf for some reason things don\u2019t go as anticipated, there will be contrasts drawn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Sununu is doubtful that Iran would become a meaningful dividing line in a prospective Vance-Rubio matchup given their status as prominent members of the Trump administration. Both will likely take credit if the conflict ends well, and both would look bad if it does not, he predicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re tied together with the success or failure of Iran. It doesn\u2019t really separate one versus the other, at least I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how the electorate will see it,\u201d Sununu said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Bill Barrow in Rocky Mount, N.C., and Thomas Beaumont in Grapevine, Texas, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 As President Donald Trump assembled his Cabinet last week, he asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[121],"tags":[1473,1475,1469,1472,12,1065,168,1471,1470,1474,186,51,1468,681,1194,52],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-marco-rubio","tag-alice-swanson","tag-benjamin-williams","tag-chris-sununu","tag-curt-mills","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-jd-vance","tag-jim-merrill","tag-joe-ropar","tag-juliana-bergeron","tag-marco-rubio","tag-politics","tag-tracy-brill","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116328023182802654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}