Vice President JD Vance offered a coy response when asked whether he thought President Donald Trump was “toying with you” when he polled a White House crowd for who they’d rather support as his successor.

The moment came as Vance held a presser in Washington, D.C., to talk about his efforts combatting fraud.

When the shouted questions turned to the matter of Trump’s successor, CNN’s Kit Maher asked: “A couple days ago, Trump made this statement to people in the Rose Garden. Why do you think he does that? Do you think it’s a little bit of toying with you both over your succession? Why do you think he brings that up?”

“Well, I just don’t think it sounds like for the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his apprentice,” Vance said with a sly smile. “I just think that’s not at all what you would expect the president to do.”

He added, “But no, look, I think the president, he’s always been fascinated by politics. If you talk to him, he was fascinated by politics 30 years before he ever ran for office. So I think it’s natural for him to joke around with us a little bit. to play around with the idea, but I can tell you, the president is as focused as any of us on making sure we do as good of a job now for the American people.”

Maher was referring to a moment in the Rose Garden on Monday, when Trump asked the crowd, “Who likes JD Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio?” before adding that it sounded “like a good ticket.”

“By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team,” Trump said. “But these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance!”

A day later, a new poll from AtlasIntel found that 45.4% of Republican respondents now prefer Rubio as the preferred choice to carry the GOP’s banner two years from now.

Vance, who has long been the favorite to succeed Trump in the White House, finished in second with 29.6%, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) at 11.2%.

Earlier this month, Trump floated both Rubio and Vance as possible successors during an interview with Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker.

“I think we have tremendous people,” Trump said. “I think that we have a tremendous group of people. We talked about a number of them. You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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