Trump Is Losing Power. Marco Rubio’s Next Move Proves It.

The MAGA movement's Tuesday bloodbath has already inspired some of the far-right contingent's biggest figureheads to plot a course without Donald Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is preparing to resign from the Trump administration as he lays the groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential campaign, The Independent reported Thursday.

Insiders in Washington and the British government told the newspaper that Rubio needs to distance himself from Trump's controversies—including the wildly unpopular war in Iran—to improve his odds at the ballot box. The news would be a major snub to Vice President JD Vance, who has been teasing his own presidential bid for months and has long been viewed as Trump's only clear successor.

Both the White House and the State Department refuted reports of Rubio's forthcoming exit, telling the Independent that the allegations were "baseless." But the possible Republican challenge may not have come as a surprise to Trump himself, who speculated to reporters Wednesday that "maybe [Vance] won't run." "We'll see what happens.

Everybody—You don't know who's talking about running. You could have a lot of people, maybe a lot of people running, maybe nobody is gonna run. Maybe he won't run.

I don't know who's going to run," Trump said , before adding that he "wouldn't have done nothing different" regarding the Iran war. If Rubio does decide to leave, he will leave behind a shattered and broken White House that is on the cusp of losing even more Cabinet members as Trump looks for places to lay blame for his shoddy second term.

Last month, Trump reportedly called several close confidantes to assess the potential of using White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, his former campaign manager and famed "Ice Maiden," as a scapegoat for a major midterm bust. He's also made the rounds to check current attitudes about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine as the Iran war drags on into its eighth month.

But even more heads could roll after January, when Democrats retake both chambers of Congress. Liberal party leaders indicated Thursday that they plan to make Washington a very different place in the new year. Some Republicans seem to be in agreement: Representative Thomas Massie plans to resurrect his articles of impeachment against Hegseth, and several members of the GOP believe it will pass.