Now a trusted ally, ‘Little Marco’ gets Trump’s big jobs
WASHINGTON: Top diplomat, foreign aid chief, national archivist and now national security adviser.
Marco Rubio’s expanding resume underscores President Donald Trump’s increasing trust in the former Florida senator, officials said.
Trump said on Thursday that his national security adviser Mike Waltz would move on to become UN ambassador, weeks after Waltz added a journalist from The Atlantic to a Signal chat where top officials were discussing military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
In his place, Trump named Rubio as his top national security aide on an interim basis, the latest instance of the president turning to the man he once disparaged as Little Marco and labeled a con artist to take on crucial tasks in his administration.
Rubio will lead the council that coordinates the administration’s national security actions around the world, although Trump did not indicate when a permanent replacement would be named.
The reshuffle comes amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine, restore a failed ceasefire in Gaza and conduct complex nuclear talks with Iran, all while managing the diplomatic fallout from Trump’s trade war with China.
A senior US official said Rubio has built trust with Trump by carrying out whatever tasks Trump hands to him. “He’s done everything that Trump has asked him to do,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. “Why wouldn’t you trust him?”
NSC Spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters that Rubio had implemented Trump’s America First agenda and was “well qualified” to oversee the council.
