The Media Line: Dr. Mike Evans: ‘Rubio-Ivanka Trump Ticket Could Crush Democrats in 2028’ 

Dr. Mike Evans: ‘Rubio-Ivanka Trump Ticket Could Crush Democrats in 2028’ 

President Trump’s evangelical ally suggests the president is holding off on Iran until after the midterm elections 

By Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line 

An influential evangelical supporter of President Donald Trump is already looking ahead to the 2028 presidential race, arguing that a hypothetical ticket featuring Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump would be “almost impossible to beat” and could unite both Trump’s political base and mainstream American voters. 

“If this opportunity is seized, no one could run against these candidates,” Dr. Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Museum, told The Media Line on Tuesday morning. “There’s no Democrat who could run and beat them. They’ll 100% win the White House back.” 

Dr. Evans spoke to The Media Line just before it was confirmed that Israeli forces were moving deeper into Lebanon, and as Trump claimed the United States and Iran were nearing a deal, while simultaneously targeting Iranian forces in what Tehran called a “grave violation” of the two countries’ fragile ceasefire. 

He added that Ivanka Trump “has the intelligence, she has the communication skills, she has it all, and she can cross over the base. Marco Rubio is the veteran with all the experience. So, I personally believe, if Marco Rubio and Ivanka run … no one can touch them with a 10-foot pole.” 

Ivanka Trump could become president within a decade, Dr. Evans said, but for now, as vice president, she could carry on her father’s legacy, and “the entire evangelical base, 100% of them, will support that on steroids.” 

Turning to Iran, Dr. Evans said that he believes President Trump is aiming for a deal right now, but that does not mean he would let Iran get away with enriching uranium, growing its ballistic missile capabilities, blocking the Strait of Hormuz or making it too expensive to navigate there, or continuing to fund terror in the region. 

He said Donald Trump “plays the long game, so he’s looking at Iran, and he’s also looking at the clock. He knows he has two and a half years [left in office].” 

According to Dr. Evans, Trump does not let anybody “play him for the fool,” and if they do, he will “go for your throat with revenge.” Dr. Evans said if Tehran lies or underestimates President Trump, “Iran can’t imagine in their worst nightmare what he will do to them. He will come back in a way they couldn’t possibly imagine.” 

Dr. Evans is an evangelical leader who predicted the Abraham Accords years before they were signed, during a speech at the Jerusalem Post conference. He also claimed he foresaw President Trump’s political comeback after his 2020 election loss. Speaking in Jerusalem in 2024, Dr. Evans referenced a letter sent to President Trump, who at the time was between presidencies, calling on him to leverage his support within the Republican Party to push for a strike on Kharg Island.  

 

Dr. Evans has long positioned himself as one of President Trump’s strongest evangelical allies and a vocal supporter of aggressive action against Iran, often framing the conflict in both geopolitical and biblical terms. 

The evangelical leader said he believes President Trump understands the importance of the upcoming midterm elections and the political constraints that could come with losing Republican control in Washington. 

“The Republicans need to stay in power, because then if the Democrats are in power, they can pass legislation to block the president from everything, including war in Iran,” Dr. Evans said. “So we need to win these midterms. This is very important.” 

In this case, he predicts, President Trump will likely try to hold off the next major escalation with Iran until after those elections. 

At the same time, Dr. Evans argued that President Trump has already shown he is willing to take major military action despite the political risks. 

“I don’t think he’s capitulating over the midterms, because if he was basing his decisions on the midterm, he would have never attacked Iran,” Dr. Evans said. But he noted that President Trump is “dancing with the gorilla in the midterms, and the dilemma you have with this gorilla he’s dancing with is it’s affecting the US economy, affecting the prices of food, affecting the prices of oil, and he doesn’t want to lose the midterms, because we know what the Democrats will do to him in the next two years.” 

He said that even if President Trump signs a deal with Iran, the country should not expect to gain much from the United States. Rather, Dr. Evans argued, President Trump would give Iran a window to prove itself, and if it fails, “he’s not going to allow Iran to play games … He’s had the courage to do the right thing, and the damage he’s done to Iran is unbelievably significant, so I think he’s trying his best to balance both these complicated dilemmas, without compromising.” 

At the same time, Dr. Evans noted that he believes President Trump will push Saudi Arabia and other countries into the Abraham Accords even before the midterm elections and their political consequences are felt. 

“This will be a game changer for the state of Israel, because it builds a firewall for Israel,” Dr. Evans said. 

President Trump orchestrated the first Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and, eventually, Morocco toward the end of his first presidency. Sudan also signed the accords, but its participation has been effectively frozen due to the civil war that broke out in the country in April 2023. Kazakhstan officially joined the Abraham Accords on November 6, 2025. 

Dr. Evans added that the “greatest military maneuver is sometimes not advancing but retrenching. It’s regrouping for the next battle. So, I’m not one bit worried about Israel.” 

In May 2024, Dr. Evans erected large billboards across Jerusalem featuring an hourglass against the Islamic Republic’s flag, along with a promise that the end of the Ayatollah regime in Iran would take place by October 28, 2028. That date coincides with the 7th of Aban in the Iranian calendar, recognized as Cyrus the Great Day. 

 

Many evangelicals compare President Trump to Cyrus, mentioned in the Book of Isaiah, to illustrate how even flawed, nonbelieving leaders can be used by God to advance His purposes. 

“I still believe by 2028 it’ll happen,” Dr. Evans said. “It may not happen in the exact month I’m saying, but I believe it’s going to happen in the fall of that year.” 

He said the downfall of the Iranian regime takes time and that “Trump knows what he’s doing … I believe he’s playing the long game, and I believe he knows exactly what he’s doing, and it’ll be just fine.” 

Dr. Evans also spoke about the upcoming Israeli election, expected within the next five months. He said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should run again because “he’s done an enormous amount of good for the state of Israel. No prime minister has done what he’s done.” 

He called the people running against Netanyahu, including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, “characters.” 

In 2021, Dr. Evans launched a scathing attack on then-Yamina leader Bennett for unseating Netanyahu. He sent a letter to Bennett that was widely shared on social media in which he told the leader that he “betrayed the very principles that a generation gave their blood for and died for. You want to be in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood and leftists. God have mercy on your soul. You’re a pathetic, bitter little man so obsessed with murdering Netanyahu that you’re willing to damage the State of Israel for your worthless cause.” 

Dr. Evans later personally apologized for the letter. 

He told The Media Line that Christians will support Israel no matter who is in power as prime minister, but that “no person on the planet is more loved by evangelicals than Benjamin Netanyahu, not even Donald Trump … If you think of evangelicals globally all over the world, this is the bridge builder, this is the one who speaks our language.” 

He said other prime ministers are unlikely to understand how to mobilize evangelicals to the same extent as Netanyahu and will likely lack a relationship with this base. 

“They’ll be at a tremendous disadvantage,” he said. 

 

  

 

 

Caption: Dr. Mike Evans. (Courtesy)