Ari Emanuel, the TKO chief, told Rachel Maddow in an interview that Donald Trump has expressed enthusiasm for stepping down in 2028 and backing a joint ticket of JD Vance and Marco Rubio as his successors. According to Emanuel, Trump considers the pair "a formidable group" for the presidency, signalling potential succession planning for the Republican Party.

The unstreamed conversation at New York's 92Y, held on the day of Emanuel's memoir release, saw Maddow repeatedly challenge the entertainment executive on his close relationships with powerful figures including Elon Musk, David Ellison and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Emanuel defended these associations as pragmatic and for the greater good, though he acknowledged they were sometimes morally ambiguous; Maddow pressed him on concerns about billionaire control of media institutions and his 2018 meeting with Vladimir Putin regarding UFC initiatives in Russia, whilst Emanuel insisted the world is rarely "black and white."