WASHINGTON – “Little Marco” no more.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is bigger than ever in a rapidly evolving White House. He’s become the face of President Donald Trump’s threats to abandon Ukraine, massive foreign aid cuts and a deportation policy that has split the public.
Trump has even named him, along with Vice President JD Vance, as a possible 2028 MAGA successor.
Rubio has now stepped into the role of national security adviser, setting the one-time Trump rival up for an even greater role in Trump’s foreign policy. He is only the second person to have held both positions simultaneously. (The other was Henry Kissinger.)
But the elevation comes with danger for Rubio’s political career: Trump’s had five national security advisers since he was first elected in 2016 – all but one were pushed out.
“Marco Rubio is going to be in a very difficult position over time,” said former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who served as an under-secretary of Homeland Security. “I don’t think he feels very comfortable favoring Russia in the negotiations with Ukraine or alienating our allies – and yet he’s in the Trump administration.”
How Rubio balances his own hawkish views on Russia, and Trump’s desire to end the Ukraine war at all costs, is pivotal to his credibility at home and abroad. Already, senators who voted to confirm Rubio say they’re disappointed, although they concede it’s better to have him in negotiations over Ukraine’s future than not.
Rubio supported Ukraine aid early in the war but shifted his position in 2024 as Trump’s presidential campaign took off. He opposed the most recent round of military assistance, saying the U.S. needed to focus on border security.
Michael Allen, who served on the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush, said it’s clear Rubio, despite “hawkish proclivities earlier in his career,” has become more open to Trump’s worldview.
“I think he’s discovered that part of the appeal for Donald Trump in the age of populism has been a reflection that the American people don’t want big wars anymore,” he said.
The shift was on display at a Cabinet meeting the day before Trump elevated Rubio to national security adviser. Rubio talked up Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts and deportations. He told Trump he’d eliminated an office keeping dossiers on Americans it considered purveyors of disinformation – including at least one unidentified member of the Cabinet.
Trump turned to Rubio and patted his arm. “Thank you very much, Marco” he said. “Really great job.”
The next day, Trump removed Michael Waltz as national security adviser and gave Rubio the gig on an interim basis.
“When I have a problem, I call up Marco, he gets it solved,” Trump said at a prayer breakfast, hours before the changeup.
Over at the State Department, spokesperson Tammy Bruce set her phones to “do not disturb” ahead of her May 1 briefing.
Within minutes, a reporter informed her that Trump had tapped Rubio to replace Waltz.
“It is clear that I just heard this from you,” Bruce said, adding that she’d had “some insights” into the move. “Things don’t happen until the president says they are going to happen.”
In the days since, experts have questioned whether Rubio can effectively run the State Department, the National Security Council and the DOGE-slashed U.S. Agency for International Development, which he’s also taken charge of.
Sen. Mark Warner, ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee who supported Rubio’s nomination, told CNN, “I don’t know how anybody could do these two big jobs.” That, plus his role as head of USAID, he said, “Even for a Marco Rubio, I think it’s too much.”
Bruce called Rubio a “very involved, energetic man.”
“If anybody can do it certainly…it will be Marco Rubio,” she said.
Rubio, a former senator from Florida, was the first member of Trump’s second-term Cabinet to be confirmed, earning a vote of 99-0 from his colleagues on Inauguration Day.
“He’s respected by everybody. And we appreciate you voting for Marco,” Trump said in early March at his joint address to Congress.
Now, some Democratic senators have buyers’ remorse.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has clashed aggressively with the administration over the wrongful deportation of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, says he regrets voting to confirm Rubio.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.,told USA TODAY that Rubio has been a “big disappointment.”
Still, Kaine said, “There have been a few things where I thought, okay, am I seeing the Marco Rubio that I know emerge?”
Kaine said he suspects Rubio pushed Pete Marocco, the Trump official who oversaw the leveling of USAID, out of the State Department. “I think that was something that very much had Marco Rubio’s fingerprints on it.”
“And I think that was a very important move, because I think Marocco was a real disaster,” he said.
The slashing of more than $80 billion in foreign assistance at the behest of DOGE, without congressional approval, has roiled Democrats.
At a hearing last month, House Foreign Affairs ranking Democrat Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., said Rubio had contorted himself to justify Trump’s actions.
“There is no greater demonstration of this incredible cowardice, in my opinion, than that of Secretary Rubio, who knows this is wrong,” Meeks said. “He knows its wrong but would rather sit atop a kingdom of ash than defend the work he once praised.”
Senate Democrats who worked closely with Rubio were more forgiving.
Sen. Chris Coons, a leading Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said, “There are things about how he is carrying the water of the Trump administration on some very poor strategic decisions that I’m very unhappy with.”
Yet, Coons acknowledged his disagreements with Rubio “relate to President Trump and his decisions.”
Kaine took a similar position. “I get it, that it’s the president’s policy,” the Democrat said. “He is going to be inside the room better on Ukraine than some other people who were contemplated for the role.”
Untangling Trump’s position on Russia’s war against Ukraine is the most critical of Rubio’s assignments.
Rubio has been saying for weeks that without substantial progress toward a deal, Trump will “move on” from negotiations to end a war the president once bragged he could solve in a single day.
“We need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term. Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Rubio said after a round of negotiations with the Ukrainian government in Paris on April 18.
It was a significant turn for Rubio, whose involvement in Ukraine talks had been muted as Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff shuttled to meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
With Witkoff taking the lead on Middle East conflicts, and Waltz sidelined, Rubio and Trump are now the public faces of U.S. efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In Paris, the U.S. presented a framework deal that Kyiv’s backers view as benefiting Moscow. It reportedly included giving up Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, and territory in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2022.
Russia responded with a limited truce offer and more bombardment of Ukraine.
“I don’t think it should be a surprise to the president or the secretary of state that this is a hard slog and hard going, just as it’s been a hard slog for the millions of Ukrainians that have been on the battlefield,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn, said.
At this rate, Kaine argued, “Walking away may not be all bad.”
“Walking away from trying to force a bad deal is better than forcing a bad deal,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pressing for tougher sanctions, continued military support for Ukraine and a 30-day halt in fighting.
Enter the Senate.
A bipartisan group of senators have Russian sanctions legislation on standby that would put a whopping 500% tariff on any country buying Russian oil, gas or uranium as they give Rubio and Trump space to negotiate. But they’re growing impatient.
“If Putin continues to not participate in trying to end the war, then I think these sanctions will pass overwhelmingly. We just don’t want to reward him,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told USA TODAY.
Graham, a close Trump ally, said legislation he introduced with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., now has more than 60 cosponsors.
“If Rubio says they walk away,” Graham said, “these sanctions go on.”
It’s unclear if Russia sanctions approved in the Senate would pass the Republican-controlled House.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, was one of several senators expecting Rubio to strike a better deal for Ukraine, countering what she called “a bias on the part of this administration toward Vladimir Putin and Russia.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened sanctions and secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil if Putin balks at a ceasefire.
He told reporters on May 5 that with the price of oil dropping, he thinks Russia is already being squeezed. “We are in a good place to settle,” he said.
As for Rubio, Trump told NBC he’s a potential future leader of the Republican Party.
With Trump, however, it could all turn on a dime.
At his joint address to Congress, Trump called out Rubio, who he tasked with reclaiming the Panama Canal.
“Good luck, Marco,” Trump said, laughing. “Now, we know who to blame if anything goes wrong.”
Marco’s moment: Rubio in the hot seat amid Trump team shakeup – USA Today
