Marco Rubio has captured a powerful role as President Trump’s national security advisor while also serving as secretary of state – and there are indications he could hold both jobs indefinitely.
‘I could see a scenario where it’s permanent,’ a senior White House official told the Daily Mail, hours after Trump stunned Washington by pushing out Mike Waltz on his 101st day in office.
The president announced the move Thursday after news broke that Waltz, who was central to the ‘Signalgate’ fiasco, was his nominee to be ambassador to the UN.
Trump described it publicly as a temporary move.
‘In the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as National Security Advisor, while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department. Together, we will continue to fight tirelessly to Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN,’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social post where he announced Waltz’s move.
But ‘interim’ can have a flexible meaning in the Trump White House. Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney served as Trump’s ‘acting’ chief of staff for more than a year in the first term.
Rubio has been flashing signs of confidence at the White House this week. During a a National Day of Prayer event at the Rose Garden that lasted more than an hour, Rubio got up at one point to speak to Staff Secretary Will Scharf, who reads out Trump proclamations during order signings.
A day earlier during a televised cabinet meeting that ran for two hours, Rubio joked comfortably at the expense of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. when he spoke about eating Tootsie Rolls.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now serving as Donald Trump’s national security advisor, a role he could hold on a ‘permanent’ basis, a senior administration official said
Later, he spoke forcefully when asked if there were talks to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the migrant from El Salvador sent in error to a notorious prison in that country.
‘The conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the President of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge,’ he said.
So we will conduct foreign policy appropriately, if we need to. But I’ll never discuss it,’ he added. ‘And no one will ever make us discuss it, because that’s how foreign policy works.’
Henry Kissinger held both roles under President Richard Nixon
Trump, who battled Rubio in the 2016 Republican primaries and used to mock him as ‘Little Marco,’ has clearly won him over. He became a Trump loyalist in the Senate, and has avoided the path of prior secretaries of state who were identified as centers of resistance to some of his policies.
He has publicly gotten behind Trump’s stunning proposal to take ownership of war-torn Gaza and turn it into a travel destination, and has found ways to skate through controversy over Trump positions like making Canada the 51st U.S. State.
‘I think the President has stated repeatedly he thinks Canada would be better off as a state,’ Rubio told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday.
Now, he has become Trump’s Mr. Fix It, also holding the title of acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development after Trump dismantled the agency and as acting Archivist.
Rubio is following the path of Henry Kissinger, who was national security advisor while also serving as secretary of state for Richard Nixon. Condoleezza Rice held both roles under George W. Bush, but not at the same time.
The group Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington said it was ‘a problem’ when Rubio held just three jobs. For example, there could be concerns about destruction of records amid the sudden move to take apart U.S.A.I.D. The National Archives and Records Administration tracks any such offenses and is charged with referring them to DOJ.
Rubio has backed Trump initiatives on Gaza and other controversial proposals
‘How can he be both the administrator of an agency that may be failing to follow the Federal Records Act be the nation’s archivist, responsible for ensuring that agencies follow that very law?’ CREW asked in March.
NBC News reported that Rubio has been at Mar-a-Lago about every other week, retaining close proximity to Trump during his second term.
