President Donald Trump gushed over Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Wednesday afternoon’s Cabinet meeting.

After praising EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for doing a “fantastic job,” Trump turned to Rubio and mused, “Another man doing a fantastic job, I think we all agree, is Marco.”

The president proceeded to give his top diplomat a friendly slap on the arm and ask him to “tell us about Iran.”

Rubio went on to note that Trump’s “preference” is a diplomatic solution before observing that he has “other options available to you if that doesn’t work. He went on to roll through several other foreign policy issues.

The Trump foe-turned-friend has created a potential lane for himself in the 2028 Republican presidential primary.

One recent survey from AtlasInel found that a plurality (45.4%) of Republican respondents now identify Rubio as their preferred choice to carry the GOP’s banner two years from now.

Vice President JD Vance, who has long held the pole position in the race, finished in second with 29.6%, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) at 11.2%.

Rubio has repeatedly dodged questions about running in 2028, instead suggesting that he would support Vance. But that has hardly quieted the chatter about a second presidential campaign.

“I will say that in the next two years, as people in the party and the media are comparing Rubio and Vance side-by-side, I don’t think Vance can win’em, win the performance competition. I don’t think the-, I, don’t, and the likability,” argued longtime political reporter and commentator Mark Halperin earlier this month. “I may be wrong, but I just think Rubio has improved enough and the perceptions are such that Vance is going to have a hard time of people looking at him in a press conference, in an interview on the stump, whether he drops his nasty tweet persona or not, I think he’s going to have a hard time winning that.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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