Ben Shapiro says Rubio's potential 2028 White House bid against Vance could backfire

Ben Shapiro just did Marco Rubio a favor by telling him not to run, and it's worth asking why that advice is even necessary. Rubio has spent the Trump years rebuilding himself from 2016's "Little Marco" into arguably the most competent Secretary of State in a generation, juggling Venezuela, the Middle East, and China policy without the theatrics that usually accompany that job. That's a real record. But Shapiro's point lands because it's true: a Rubio-Vance primary in 2028 wouldn't be a fair fight, it would be a mismatch dressed up as a rivalry.

Vance has spent four years as Trump's chosen successor, building the exact coalition that actually wins Republican primaries now. Rubio, for all his talents, still carries the whiff of the pre-2016 GOP that voters walked away from. Running against Vance wouldn't just risk losing. It would risk reminding the base of everything it moved past, and doing it right as Rubio's diplomatic credibility is at its peak.

There's also a simpler read here. Shapiro isn't just handicapping a horse race, he's nudging the party toward avoiding a bloodletting it doesn't need. A contested primary between two of Trump's own picks would hand Democrats a gift and split a coalition that's finally functioning as one. Rubio doesn't have to disappear to matter. He just has to know which job he's actually good at.