Vanity Fair’s ‘new establishment’ list names Vance as Trump ‘heir’ and Rubio as ‘spare’

Vanity Fair on Monday released its “New Establishment 2026” list and included several Trump administration officials , referring to Vice President Vance as the “MAGA heir” but naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the “MAGA spare.”

The magazine wrote Vance “ had reason for optimism ” following President Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, describing MAGA as “something close to trendy” with Vance as “its de facto prince.”

“‘Communion,’ Vance’s recent book about his conversion to Catholicism, allowed for a splashy media tour that brought him in front of hostile audiences like those of ‘The View,'” Vanity Fair wrote.

“Vance took some heat for embarking on that tour while in office (shouldn’t the vice president have better things to do during a war in the Middle East?), but his talk show appearances seem to have appealed to the viewer in chief: Trump, who, according to several reports, currently considers Vance his heir apparent,” the outlet added.

Vanity Fair said readers know the memes of Rubio “ stone-faced on a sofa in the Oval Office, newly appointed to a role just vacated by an embarrassed or embattled official of some sort” before naming some examples of these AI-generated memes.

“Rubio’s role has afforded him vast powers over an administration that’s shaping the world at its whims,” the magazine wrote , including various acts overseen by the former Florida senator — from the U.S. blockade on Cuba to the raid that led to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s capture.

“All the while, Rubio has telegraphed that he’s having fun with it,” Vanity Fair wrote. “… Trump might be at his most unpopular moment in history, presiding over a war he can’t explain and prices he can’t bring down. Somehow, his man at state seems to be evading the worst of the blame while maintaining a sunny disposition that keeps his name in the 2028 conversation.”

The magazine described both men as having their own Achilles’ heels.

Vance’s included remarks he made about those charged and convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and how the rioters “obviously” should not be pardoned before the president did just that following his inauguration. The outlet also pointed to Trump’s anti-war stance — one that aligned with Vance’s view — prior to launching the Iran war.

As for Rubio, he “may have cultivated an aura of upbeat competence, but it’s hard to see how he’ll emerge from Trump 2.0 unscathed,” Vanity Fair wrote in a short paragraph.

The magazine mentioned the speculation of Vance running to succeed Trump in 2028 but stated that the vice president “remains one of the least popular figures in the entire Trump administration” and warned that convincing Americans to “like him looks, so far, like scaling a mountain.”

Vanity Fair pointed to Rubio’s growing foreign policy portfolio but noted that his boss is “hopelessly fixated on stomping around the globe, a tendency that’s created a sweeping portfolio of problems for Rubio to solve.” It referred to how Vance, not Rubio, was initially sent to negotiate a peace deal with Iran, though these talks produced no immediate results.

The authors did not delve into speculation about Rubio as a potential Republican presidential contender in 2028. Both he and Vance have been seen as possible torchbearers to carry on Trump’s legacy, but neither of them has publicly stated that they intend to run.

The “new establishment” list is comprised of 50 people or groups “who have defined the moment” — specifically referring to figures in 2026 who “should inspire complicated feelings.” Vance and Rubio were joined by two of the president’s children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, as well as the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The list starts with tech leaders in artificial intelligence, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI CEO Elon Musk. Vanity Fair also named New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), along with other democratic socialist candidates and lawmakers among the notable names of the year.

Other names included were California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D); Pope Leo XIV; CNN’s Kaitlan Collins; directors Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler; television writers Taylor Sheridan and Ryan Murphy; and Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk.