Donald Trump once clashed with Marco Rubio in bitter and vulgar terms.
Nearly a decade later, the president has crowned Rubio with the rare dual role of the two top US foreign policy jobs, putting the hawkish former senator at the forefront of a proudly disruptive administration.
Trump on Thursday made Rubio, his secretary of state,the interim national security advisor, a powerful White House role tasked with coordinating foreign policy across the administration.
Trump on Thursday made Rubio, his secretary of state,the interim national security advisor, a powerful White House role tasked with coordinating foreign policy across the administration.
Just 101 days into his second term, Trump removed national security advisor Mike Waltz, who faced criticism over a leaked group chat on war plans, and pledged to nominate him as US ambassador to the United Nations.
No person has run both the State Department and National Security Council at the same time since the legendary Henry Kissinger, who did so for two years as former president Richard Nixon was being brought down by the Watergate scandal.
It remains doubtful that Rubio can amass as much influence as Kissinger, a ruthless tactician both in Washington and overseas.
Trump, who sours quickly on aides, has already given some of the most sensitive assignments — from Russia to Iran to Gaza — to special envoy Steve Witkoff, his longtime golfing partner and business friend with no previous diplomatic experience.
But Rubio has found a politically winning formula, not by fighting for turf, but by seizing on his own issues that endear himself to Trump’s base — starting with deportations.
Winning over base
Rubio has been cheered on by much of Trump’s base, some of whom after his nomination derided him as an establishment “warmongering” hawk.
It is an even further shift from the 2016 presidential race when Trump mocked him as “Little Marco” and Rubio questioned the size of Trump’s genitals.
Rubio, the first Hispanic secretary of state, on one of his first stops reached a deal to send migrants and possibly even Americans to El Salvador, whose President Nayib Bukele has championed mass incarceration to curb crime.
Rubio at a 100th day cabinet meeting with Trump repeatedly said he was unapologetic about seeking more such prison deals overseas, despite a court order that the Trump administration has resisted to bring back a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported.
Rubio has shown similar gusto in deporting foreign students over protests against Israel, insisting that he alone can revoke visas despite US constitutional protections of freedom of speech.
“Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,” he said.
‘Normal’ cabinet member
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants fiercely opposed to communism, has always held conservative views.
But on Capitol Hill, he was known as an affable player with mainstream views and, unusually in such partisan times, was unanimously confirmed by fellow senators.
Foreign interlocutors still largely see him as the most understandable person in the Trump orbit.
“We feel that he’s one person who is still ‘normal’ and will at least listen to our concerns and say he’ll take them back,” said one diplomat from a US ally involved in a meeting with Rubio, granted anonymity to speak frankly.
But Rubio has been careful not to break publicly with Trump.
He disagreed during a closed-door White House meeting with Elon Musk, the billionaire who has imposed sweeping cuts in government, according to a person familiar with the encounter.
But Rubio, who championed foreign aid as a senator, has watched as the US Agency for International Development was demolished.
In a scene that drew wide parody, Rubio appeared to silently sink deep into the White House couch as Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a stunning February 28 meeting.
At least two Democratic senators afterward said they regretted voting for Rubio, with Chris Murphy saying he had expected Rubio to “stand up” to Trump on issues dear to him such as Ukraine.
Making clear his affinity with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, Rubio in April gave an interview to a podcast by the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., in which he agreed that foreign aid had been turned “into a tool to export our domestic policies of the far left.”
Describing former president Joe Biden’s policy on Venezuela, the once bipartisan-sounding senator said undiplomatically, “It’s really both weakness and stupidity.”
