Scott Lucas

And that's where we are now, because I think the shift between J.D.

Vance, the vice president, and Rubio, I think J.D.

Vance was seen as the heir apparent to Trump until a few months ago.

And I think people both in the Rubio camp and indeed around Donald Trump have said that may not be the case now.

I think Vance may have gotten out a little bit too in front on his skis in terms of possibly taking headlines away from Trump.

And I think there's concerns about how effective Vance is in public.

And Rubio's trying to take advantage of that now, again, while never crossing Trump, never calling him out.

So at the cabinet yesterday, at the cabinet yesterday, which was just a photo opportunity, you had the spectacle of Marco Rubio, the man who got called Little Marco, the man who was at one point humiliated by Trump in debates with vulgar language I can't even repeat, talking about that this was the greatest president America has ever seen.

I think he's been influential in a way which may not be what Donald Trump wants, but it may be what others would look at.

And that is he has brought an image of coherence to what is an incoherent administration.

I'm not just talking about Donald Trump.

When you talk about a defense secretary named Pete Hexus, who isn't really that qualified for the job, he's actually just a TV host, and he makes these very ambitious, loud, bombastic Christian nationalist statements, for example.

When you talk about other cabinet officials who've been involved in that ill-fated crackdown on immigration, which has backfired...

on the Trump folks.

When you talk about all the economic chaos which has taken place, even before this Iran war, when you go back to Trump's tariffs, Rubio is the one that comes out before the cameras and appears to be someone who can put a sentence together.

I'll just put it as point blank as that.

So even if you don't agree with his policies,

and his approach, and I don't on a lot of points, as you can tell, he appears to have thought what he's talking about.

And I think when it comes, for example, to the question of Europe's future, including Ireland's future with the United States, people would rather hear Rubio because Rubio

When you hear Marco Rubio there, there are still echoes and throwbacks to the U.S.