After months of informally polling friends, advisers and even dinner guests on whether Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio should get his endorsement for the White House in 2028, President Donald Trump appears to have a favorite.

During an Oval Office confab with Republican donors last month, Trump reportedly indicated his preference for Vance to be at the top of the ticket in the next presidential race, following long-standing tradition.

According to The Washington Post, the president told them: “At the end of the day, we need to elect JD.”

The president’s newfound preference for the former Ohio senator comes after months where he publicly teased an eventual clash between both administration leaders, at times suggesting that the pair would make a good presidential ticket without specifying who he’d like to see at the top of it.

In May, he even went so far as to ask visiting law enforcement officials and other allies whom he’d gathered for dinner in the White House Rose Garden about their preferences for 2028 in a snap poll.

In remarks to his dinner guests, he opined about the current state of the Democratic Party’s bench and dismissed the potential 2028 opposition to a MAGA successor as “a lot of beauties.”

Turning to Vance, Trump said: “JD, I envy you — and other people.”

“I don't know, who's it going to be? Is it going to be JD, is it going to be somebody else? I don't know,” he said.

The president then turned to his guests for their views.

“OK, who likes JD Vance?”

After the guests responded with tepid applause, Trump asked another question: “Who likes Marco Rubio?”

The crowd’s response was slightly more muted.

At that point, Trump appeared to have had his fun, telling the loyalists arrayed before him that a Vance-Rubio ticket sounded good to him.

“JD, this is a perfect that was a perfect ticket. By the way. I do believe that's a dream team, but these are minor details,” he said.

But lest his vice president get any delusions of grandeur, the president then cautioned him: “That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance!”

The president has also put the same question to guests at his Mar-a-Lago club and Bedminster golf resort during his frequent visits there, asking his friends and colleagues to pick which of the two top officials should succeed him.

Vance, 41, is largely considered the frontrunner to take the reins of Trump’s legacy due to his popularity among younger and MAGA-oriented Republicans. But 54-year-old Rubio’s decades of political experience and multifaceted role in the current administration have resonated with many voters.

One Trump adviser who saw Trump’s remarks to donors last month told the Post that the president has “privately resolved” that Vance will lead the GOP in 2028, though other allies of the president have warned that Trump often changes his mind and is reluctant to make any decisions that could accelerate his lame-duck status with the midterms fast approaching.

For his part, Vance has dismissed the president’s constant polling of his standing relative to Rubio with sarcasm.

Days after the Rose Garden polling incident, he parried a reporter’s query about it by referencing Trump’s time as a television reality show presenter.

“Well, I just don't think it sounds like the President of the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his apprentice. I just think that's not at all what you would expect the President to do,” he said.

Vance added a caveat that Trump has “always been fascinated by politics” and said it was “natural for him to, you know, joke around with us a little bit, to play around with the idea.”

The vice president also expressed some discomfort at the idea of even thinking about a joint ticket with Rubio two years from now, telling reporters there were “few topics that I want to talk about less then what office I'm going to run for years down the road.”