Donald Trump Just Told Ari Emanuel He’s Excited About a Vance-Rubio Ticket in 2028

Donald Trump doesn’t want to stay in the White House past 2028, Ari Emanuel says — he’s too excited about JD Vance and Marco Rubio coming in instead.

“I spoke to him three weeks ago,” the TKO chief told Rachel Maddow at New York’s 92Y Tuesday night, describing a call with the president about the federal tax credit. “And in that conversation…he thought JD and Marco Rubio would be a formidable group.”

You mean as a joint ticket (presumably with Vance at the top), Maddow asked?

“Yes,” Emanuel said. “That’s what he thought.”

The best cable-news show Tuesday night wasn’t on the air. It was inside the New York venue, as Maddow interviewed her agent on the day of his memoir’s release, and despite their association repeatedly held his feet to the fire on a range of political and cultural topics. The (unstreamed) conversation went from convivial to feisty to testy and back again, as Emanuel sought to convince the audience, only sometimes successfully, that his friendliness with the White House and oligarchs like Elon Musk was for the greater good.

“I don’t think it’s productive to say I’ve never changed him,” Emanuel said of Musk. “I do think I’ve changed him a little.” (Emanuel is notably friendly with Elon Musk, his company even investing in Musk’s Twitter.)

Emanuel’s Roll the Calls tracks his time from a young apprentice in the CAA mailroom to his current status, at 65, atop the agency and UFC-WWE heap, with all the rage he (proudly) unleashed to get there.

But at the event he showed a cannier side, one willing to play nice with power, as Emanuel praised moguls like David Ellison — whom the agent very publicly supported in his successful bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

Though Emanuel allowed that he didn’t like how Paramount’s Stephen Colbert cancelation went down, he pointed to how Ellison has “let Matt and Trey do what they’re doing, and Jon do what he’s doing,” referring to South Park and The Daily Show, which regularly take aim at the president.

“That’s like a cop pulling you over and you saying ‘look at all the people in the crosswalk I didn’t hit!’” Maddow said.

“I appreciate the metaphor but I disagree with you,” Emanuel replied, as he talked up the (much-eyerolled) oversight board charged with ensuring CBS News and CNN independence.

“Do you worry about compliant billionaires taking over media?” Maddow asked.

“You’re getting most of your news from your phone and social media,” Emanuel said, avoiding the question.

Maddow was not done, noting how Ellison has “tanked the [CBS] morning show, the nightly news and is deep-frying 60 Minutes.” She called “the CBS News and 60 Minutes situation under Ellison” an “embarrassment.” She said she knew that for Emanuel there were “business reasons [to support the mogul] — he paid $8 billion to get UFC rights.”
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“7.4,” Emanuel corrected. “I wish it was eight.”

The two spent some time in a lighter mode talking about such topics as Emanuel’s unusual longevity plays that has him doing cold plunges and eating live worms. (No, really.) But then one of the pricklier exchanges emerged when Maddow pressed the TKO leader on his 2018 meeting with Vladimir Putin (over potential UFC initiatives in Russia) and warming again to Saudi crown prince MBS after previously returning a $400 million investment in the wake of the Jamal Khashoggi murder.

“Where’s the line?” Maddow asked Emanuel.

“I’m sorry to say we’re adults….it’s not always black and white,” Emanuel responded, saying that he thinks MBS has now “done some incredible stuff.”

“You’re getting frustrated,” Maddow said.

“I’m not frustrated,” Emanuel replied, seemingly a little frustrated.

Emanuel also defended his decision to hold a UFC event on the White House lawn in June (“there were incredible videos on American history”) and doubled down on Musk. “I don’t agree with Elon [on immigration],” Emanuel said. “On the other hand I was happy what he did in Ukraine blocking the Russians, happy what he’s doing with Neuralink, happy what he’s doing in space,” he said.

Despite the support for some of the biggest business players around, Emanuel couldn’t resist a shot at the brass of rival CAA. “They have not handed the reins down,” he said of the top leaders, which includes Bryan Lourd, Kevin Huvane and several other very longtime execs. “That’s bad leadership.”

Emanuel also sought to downplay the singular threat of Trump’s presidency. “You don’t think people said at the time Nixon was the most dangerous president in all of U.S. history?” Emanuel asked, to demurrals from Maddow and some in the audience. “Shut the fuck up, stop,” he said, half-smiling. “He’s a different kind of cat,” Maddow pushed back on Trump, noting her belief that “I don’t think he’s going to leave [in 2028].” Emanuel said the Vance-Rubio comment indicated to him “that’s not a man trying to be in the White House forever.”

(Rubio, incidentally, has indicated he won’t challenge Vance, which could pave the way to a VP selection. Of course, Vance would first have to win the nomination in what is expected to be a competitive primary, then deem Rubio enough of an asset in a post-Trump world to choose him. Also, an outgoing president hasn’t successfully joysticked the new one since the 1980’s.)

Meanwhile, Emanuel’s own family may also be a factor in the race as Rahm Emanuel potentially positions himself to play centrist spoiler on the Democratic side. The younger Emanuel did nothing to cool the speculation about his brother when he said he would do “whatever I can” should he try to run, because “he’d be a great candidate,” as he talked up the former White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor. “Is there anybody more qualified than my brother?” Ari Emanuel asked.

Maddow seemed most upset by Emanuel cozying up to Trump and oligarchs for what she suggested was his own benefit.

“Is there anything about your relationships [with them] that has ever had a positive or mitigating effect on the harm they are doing to our country?,” she asked.

“I want to live in a society. You have conversations [in a society],” Emanuel answered. “When I’ve disagreed with the president, with Elon Musk, with a lot of the people you’ve mentioned, I have in my opinion swayed them. That might not satisfy you, I’m sorry,” he said.