US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declined to take sides in the debate over whether his vice president, JD Vance, or his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, would most likely be his successor in the 2028 Republican presidential campaign.
Vance, a former Republican senator from Ohio, has said he will talk to Trump about the possibility of running after the November midterm elections.
There is also speculation among Republican insiders that Rubio, a former senator from Florida who ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016 and lost to Trump, could seek the presidency.
Rubio has not closed the door to running in 2028, but has praised Vance as a strong potential candidate.
Trump said he would "be inclined" to endorse a successor when asked about Vance and Rubio during an interview with NBC News, but added that he did not want to get into the subject now.
“We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don’t want to have an argument with, or I don’t want to use the word ‘fight’ — it wouldn’t be a fight. But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic," Trump said.
Trump has often said the two men should run together on the same ticket. The 2028 election will feature a wide-open race on both the Republican and Democratic sides and crowded fields are expected.
In a possible nod to Rubio, the country's chief diplomat, Trump said of the pair: “I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other."
He called them both men of very high intelligence.
"I think there’s a difference in style," Trump said. “You know, you can see the style yourself. But they’re both very capable. I do think this: The combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten, I think. But you never know in politics, right?”
Trump in the interview also again appeared to toy with the possibility of seeking an unconstitutional third term. He had flirted with the idea last year, later abandoning the concept.
Asked if he saw “any scenario” in which he would still be president when the next president's term begins in January 2029, Trump said: “I don’t know. It would be interesting.”
Trump backs MAGA prosecutor in race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene's seat
Meanwhile, Trump endorsed a conservative local prosecutor in a Georgia special election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from the US House of Representatives amid an acrimonious split with the president.
Trump said that he was throwing his support behind Clay Fuller, the district attorney for four counties in northwest Georgia, describing him as an "America First Patriot" and a proponent of the president's Make America Great Again movement.
"He is strongly supported by the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Georgia," Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
The endorsement is expected to boost Fuller's chances in the March 10 election to replace Greene, who had been one of the most prominent voices in the MAGA movement before breaking with Trump late last year.
The split was driven primarily by Greene's aggressive push to have the Department of Justice release files related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, as well as her criticism of the Israel-Hamas War and US aid to Jerusalem.
Angered by her stances, Trump called her a "traitor" and withdrew his support for her. Greene's resignation from her seat representing Georgia's 14th district in the House of Representatives became effective in January.
In addition to Fuller, former Georgia state Senator Colton Moore - a staunchly conservative and pro-Trump Republican -- has been seen as a front-runner in a crowded race of 16 Republicans.
Democrat Shawn Harris, a cattle farmer and retired brigadier general who lost to Greene in 2024, is running again in the conservative district. Harris got 35.6% of the vote in 2024, compared to Greene's 64.4% of the vote.
In announcing his candidacy, Fuller had characterized himself as an "America First prosecutor" in alignment with Trump.
"This is the honor of a lifetime. I will not let you or Georgia’s 14th District down," Fuller said in a statement following Trump's endorsement on Wednesday.
If no candidate wins a majority, the top two vote-getters will face off in an April 7 runoff.
Trump says he will stay out of Netflix-Paramount fight over Warner Bros
Additionally, Trump said he will stay out of the Netflix and Paramount Skydance fight over Warner Bros Discovery, a reversal from late last year when he said he would be involved in reviewing the deal.
"I haven't been involved," Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
"I must say, I guess I'm considered to be a very strong president. I've been called by both sides. It's the two sides, but I've decided I shouldn't be involved. The Justice Department will handle it."
Trump said in December he would have a say on whether the proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Bros should go forward, telling reporters that the market share of a combined entity could raise concerns.
"I'll be involved in that decision," Trump said at the time.
Netflix and Paramount Skydance covet Warner Bros for its film and television studios, extensive content library and franchises.
Netflix has proposed an $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. The US Department of Justice is reviewing that offer and a competing, hostile bid from Paramount Skydance.
The Republican leader acknowledged the divide between the bidders in the NBC interview on Wednesday.
"There's a theory that one of the companies is too big and it shouldn’t be allowed to do it, and the other company is saying something else," he said.
"They're beating the hell out of each other - and there'll be a winner."
Paramount has said its bid would have an easier regulatory path to approval. But Warner Bros has repeatedly rejected offers from Paramount, which would wind up deep in debt to finance the transaction.
Paramount's CEO is David Ellison, whose father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has cultivated a close relationship with Trump.
Melania Trump says talks with Putin team continue to free Ukrainian kids
First Lady Melania Trump said on Wednesday she remains in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin's team in an effort to secure the return of more Ukrainian children from Russia.
"I'm working on it, and we are in the process," she told reporters at the White House. "I hope we have success very soon."
She did not share details about talks between her representatives and Putin's team.
An East Wing spokesman said the lines of communication had continued after Melania Trump wrote a letter to Putin -- hand-delivered by her husband last August -- about abducted Ukrainian children.
Fifteen children have been returned to Ukraine since the first lady started her advocacy, including seven children in December.
Ukraine has accused Russia of abducting at least 19,000 of its children and taking them to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russia has repeatedly denied abducting Ukrainian children, saying it acted to keep them safe from the fighting.
On Wednesday, Russian and Ukrainian officials said they had "productive" talks in US-led negotiations aimed at ending the four-year-old war, although Russia earlier this week attacked Ukraine with hundreds of drones and a record number of ballistic missiles.
Melania Trump, who has kept a low profile during her husband's second term, met at the White House on Wednesday with two freed Israeli American hostages, Keith and Aviva Siegel.
Trump has attacked pillars of democracy, Human Rights Watch says
Trump has attacked key pillars of his country's democracy, Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday in its annual global report, citing the Republican president's immigration crackdown, threats to voting rights and other policies.
In an introduction to the report - which reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries - the head of the prominent independent New York-based rights group largely focused on the US at a time when the Trump administration has shifted away from US support for human rights globally, not only praising prominent autocratic rulers but showing little interest in reining them in.
Human Rights Watch Executive Director Philippe Bolopion wrote that Washington was now helping countries such as Russia and China in undermining human rights.
"In 2026 the fight for the future of human rights will play out most sharply in the US, with consequences for the rest of the world," he said in a video launching the report on Wednesday.
Bolopion then told reporters: "We see a sort of very hostile environment in the US and a very rapid decline of ... the quality of democracy in this country."
The White House said Human Rights Watch suffers from "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and had attacked Trump even before he took office.
"President Trump has done more for human rights than this Soros-funded, left-wing group ever could by ending eight wars, saving countless lives, protecting religious freedom, ending Biden's weaponization of government, and more," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.
Billionaire financier and major Democratic donor George Soros founded Open Society Foundations, which has previously given grants to Human Rights Watch.
Bolopion also said in the report that the Trump administration had leaned on racist tropes and "embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology."
He criticized what he said was degrading treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers, the killing of two people in Minneapolis, and the deportation of hundreds of migrants to a mega-prison in El Salvador known for its harsh conditions, among other elements of Trump's immigration crackdown.
Masked immigration officers, often in tactical military-style gear, have become a common sight across the US and protests have erupted in several cities.
Trump's hardline immigration agenda was a potent campaign issue that helped him win the 2024 election.
Elsewhere, the report said Chinese authorities systematically denied freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and other rights, while Russia had further intensified a crackdown on dissent and civil society, and Israeli forces escalated attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
China and Russia have previously defended their human rights records, while Israel has said that it respects international law and that operations in Gaza are necessary to destroy Hamas
Separately, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday that two members of its team resigned after the organization paused the publication of a report on the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Omar Shakir, the organization's Israel and Palestine director and one of those who resigned, accused Bolopion of pulling the finalized report in a post on X.