Vance’s shoe size gibe lifts lid on rivalry with Rubio
Donald Trump’s dressing down over footwear gave the veep the chance to bait his fellow Republican, writes George Grylls in Washington
If you are getting ready to run against the only other Republican seemingly capable of succeeding Donald Trump there are ways to undermine them.
You might question their foreign policy credentials, for example, or interrogate their allegiance to Trump’s Maga base. Other avenues of attack are what they have to say about immigration, crime and an economy that many Americans think is in the doldrums.
Then again, if you are JD Vance and the opponent is Marco Rubio, the secretary of state Mr Trump once derided as Little Marco, you might take a less subtle approach.
According to a leaked recording from Mr Vance’s Christmas party in Washington on Friday, which took place on a busy White House day when he, Mr Trump and Mr Rubio were in talks with an unnamed diplomat, the discussion turned to their shoes. Famously fastidious, Mr Trump looked at Mr Rubio’s and Mr Vance’s and said they were not good enough.
“Sometimes you get these behind-the-scenes moments that I will never, ever, forget for the rest of my life,” Mr Vance told the party. He recounted what had taken place a few hours earlier. “Today (Tuesday) I’m in the Oval Office with the president of the United States and our great secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and we’re talking about something really, really important.”
Then, Mr Vance said, Mr Trump held up his hand. “No, no, no, hold on a second,” the president told them. “There’s something much more important. Shoes.” Mr Trump leant towards Mr Vance and Mr Rubio, peering over the Resolute desk. “Marc, JD, you guys have shitty shoes,” he said. “We got to get you better shoes.”
The president left the room and returned with a catalogue. “There happens to be another politician in the room,” Mr Vance later told the crowd at his party. “I won’t say who and you’ll find out why in a second.” Mr Trump showed Mr Vance and Mr Rubio his “incredible” shoe catalogue and told them he would buy them four pairs each.
“He’s asking for our size so that he can make sure we’re getting the right shoes,” Mr Vance recalled. “I’m going to get you some shoes, too,” he told the other politician.
Mr Trump asked Mr Rubio his shoe size, Mr Vance said. “Marco is apparently 11 and a half,” Mr Vance said, to a few titters from the crowd. “He says, ‘JD, what’s your shoe size?’ My shoe size is 13. And he asks this politician, who I won’t embarrass, what his shoe size is and he says seven.” Mr Trump leant back in his chair, and said: “You know, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size.”
Mr Vance appeared to enjoy the laughter from his audience, who all seemed to understand what he was alluding to. For the avoidance of any lingering doubt, he turned to his wife, Usha, and said: “We won’t ask the second lady for any comment on that particular topic.”
For all the laughter, there may be a serious point. Mr Trump has repeatedly suggested that he supports either Mr Rubio or Mr Vance to succeed him, while not altogether ruling out a third term. He has also appeared to seek to dissuade them from fighting for his favour, suggesting that, were they to unite on a Republican ticket, they could defeat any possible Democrat resurgence in 2028.
“All I can tell you is that we have a great group of people, which they don’t,” Mr Trump said in October. “We have JD. Marco is great. If they formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”
Mr Vance has mostly been playing nice with Mr Rubio. Last month, for example, he said that neither was entitled to the presidency at the end of Mr Trump’s second term.
He told Fox News that he did not view Mr Rubio as a rival, and said: “If Marco eventually runs for president, then we can cross that bridge when we come to it. It’s a long ways in the future, and neither of us is entitled to it.”
The Times
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