Anxiety over the 2028 presidential election and the Republican ticket has officially hit the White House.

On Monday night, Trump informally polled guests at a dinner held in the White House’s Rose Garden on their preferred candidate. “Who likes JD Vance? Who likes Marco Rubio?” he said, before suggesting a Vance-Rubio ticket would be a “dream team.”

Trump's Apprentice-style crowdwork was a moment of levity that masked the fact that over the last few days, White House aides have been confronting the difficult—and still faraway—question of who will be the Republican nominee.

The president has actually done several snap polls in recent weeks, a source familiar with the matter tells WIRED. The results have been notable, they say: When Trump polled donors at Mar-a-Lago, they favored Rubio. But when Trump recently polled a group of law enforcement officers that the White House thinks are perhaps more representative of regular voters, they favored Vance.

Vance remains the presumptive nominee, White House sources tell me, but he has not been taking anything for granted. In fact, the vice president's top advisers started the week huddled at a retreat to discuss political strategy, the sources said.

He has also taken steps to bolster his political team, which has remained largely the same since his days as a US senator, ahead of what could be a bruising midterms for Republicans as they grapple with the politically toxic fallout of the Iran war and a House GOP spending package that earmarks $1 billion for Trump’s ballroom project, among other issues.

Vance started discussing changes to his team, including the addition of Cliff Sims as his new national security adviser and elevating Will Martin to be his deputy chief of staff, back in January, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Sims, whose new position was announced yesterday, is widely regarded in Washington as a ruthless political operator who could bolster the vice president through his long experience in Trumpworld and close relationships with a crop of top administration officials.

Chief among them are his ties to CIA director John Ratcliffe—for whom Sims has spent the past year as an external adviser, according to multiple sources familiar with the arrangement. The sources tell me they expect Vance and Ratcliffe to work more closely together and thereby dramatically increase the vice president’s influence on national security policy.

Sims, who is not expected to start for several weeks, is also likely to start shaping the vice president’s political messaging. He previously served as a White House press aide and, later, as communications director for the office of the director of national intelligence.

Of course, the person heading up the National Security Council is none other than Rubio, who holds the title of Trump's national security adviser in addition to secretary of state.

Chatter about Rubio's potential as a 2028 candidate was turbocharged last week when he filled in for press secretary Karoline Leavitt to brief reporters on the Iran war. His appearance reignited a slew of news stories about whether he might run for the presidency.

“There is no secret plan to make Rubio president,” said one Rubio ally who spoke on the condition of anonymity, adding that the secretary of state did not volunteer to do the briefing, which instead came at the behest of the White House.

Still, Rubioworld has been quietly pleased about the positive coverage his briefing generated, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House then posted a clip of Rubio describing his vision for America on X, which almost resembled a presidential stump speech.

“President Trump has assembled an all-star team that has achieved unprecedented success in just over one year. Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio are both invaluable members of the President’s team,” Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement.

Aboard Air Force One

Trump was joined on his flight from Washington DC for the summit in Beijing by a number of notable guests, including Elon Musk and Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to the press pool traveling with the President.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is also going to the China summit after Trump asked him to at the last minute. Huang was spotted on the tarmac as Air Force One refueled in Anchorage.

Also on the flight was Rubio, who for whatever reason, changed into a grey Nike tracksuit similar to the one that Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was seen wearing when he was snatched from Caracas.

On Capitol Hill

The Trump administration has been contending with some congressional oversight this week. Here are some other news lines that Inner Loop is tracking:

— The Trump Justice Department paid out millions of dollars to settle misconduct claims from suspended FBI agents, sometimes even after their claims were rejected in court, per Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Raskin slammed several of the deals in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, where he included details about one FBI agent who apparently lied about being at the Capitol on January 6 and was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay, despite being ineligible. Read the letter here.

— Top Pentagon officials testified on Capitol Hill that the Iran war has so far cost at least $29 billion, up from the $25 billion officials estimated two weeks ago. Acting Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst said at a House budget hearing the $29 billion included the cost to replace munitions and at least 39 aircraft destroyed by Iran. Watch here.

— FBI Director Kash Patel lashed out at Democratic lawmakers during a Senate budget hearing when questioned about allegations of “excessive drinking” and whether it impaired his leadership. Patel responded to scrutiny from Senator Chris Van Hollen by accusing him of “slinging margaritas” with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Justice Department mistakenly deported last year to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. Check out the hearing here.

This is an edition of Hugo Lowell’s Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.