However, his mentor at the time and Florida Governor Jeb Bush (brother of President George W. Bush) was charmed by him. After one of his first speeches, in which Rubio described the experiences of a young single mother and argued that the government had a moral obligation to help her provide a better life for her child, a tearful Bush gave him a gift, saying it was the weapon of a “great conservative warrior.”
“I can’t remember ever being more proud to be a Republican, Marco,” he told him afterward.
But Rubio didn’t let loyalty get in the way of his career. When he ran for the Senate in 2010, he rode the wave of the right-wing movement known as the Tea Party and politically destroyed popular Gov. Charlie Crist, whom he portrayed as too liberal because he embraced Democrat Barack Obama. Rubio subsequently won, and Washington welcomed him as a new star. In 2013, Time magazine even called him the “Republican savior!”.
Collision with reality
The turning point came in 2016. Rubio, who has not lost so far, announced his presidential candidacy, encouraged by his success. However, he found himself in an arena with an enemy he was not prepared for – Donald Trump.
It was months of humiliation. Trump, whose political incorrectness at the time was a shock to many, made Rubio a target. He gave him the nickname “Little Marco” and mocked him at every turn. Rubio tried to hit back. He called Trump a “fraudster” who is committing “the biggest fraud in American history” and even reduced himself to jokes about the size of Trump’s hands or the state of his orange tan. It didn’t help. In the primary in his home state of Florida, he lost 66 counties, all but one — his home base of Miami-Dade.
Rubio subsequently withdrew. But he kept his seat in the Senate and understood that the Republican Party had changed. The old neoconservative wing that believed in the spread of democracy and free trade was dead. It has been replaced by Trump’s populism. And Rubio chose to survive. That’s when the process began, which many call pragmatism – and its critics call selling the soul and living without a backbone.
When Trump assembled his team for a second term in 2024, Rubio was no longer “Little Marco.” He was Trump’s loyal ally, criticizing elites and advocating protectionism in his new book Decades of Decadence. His appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs was confirmed by the Senate by a vote ratio of 99 to 0.
Ministry in flames
Rubio took over the State Department at a time when the Trump administration decided to rebuild the institution from the ground up. The ideals that Rubio once promoted – aid to developing countries or support of human rights – became the first victims.
Under his leadership, though often under pressure from the White House and executives like Elon Musk, there have been massive cuts to USAID. They met with criticism not only in the United States, but also around the world. Trust in the US and its democratic assistance in the name of ideals began to crumble rapidly. Rubio supported the cuts, despite his original views — a letter to Biden in 2022 urging an increase in USAID’s budget to counter Chinese influence.
But three years later, when the US announced cuts to international humanitarian aid, he pivoted in a way that suggested he had opposed USAID from the start. “I did it. I was the one who made the decisions… I remember being in a hotel – I think in Guatemala – going through a table of canceled contracts line by line,” Rubio claimed before the Senate about the cancellation of humanitarian programs, although privately he assured diplomats that he tried to save what he could.
The atmosphere in the ministry resembled a purge. Career diplomats have been replaced by ideologues of the MAGA movement, who believe that the ministry has been a bastion of liberalism and “woke” culture until now. There were even internal ones for reporting colleagues for “anti-Christian bias”. Rubio, who has an office just steps from the Oval Office, is rarely seen in the department building. His main role is to stand by Donald Trump.
Between conscience and loyalty
Rubio’s position on the war in Ukraine is probably key for Slovakia. He was one of the harshest critics of Russia years ago. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he called for tough sanctions. Today, however, his attitude shows the difficulty of balancing on the edge of Trump’s ideas.
Even at the beginning of 2024, Rubio turned around and voted against the military aid package for Kyiv, arguing that the US was only “funding the stalemate”. However, his role in the new administration is specific. For European partners, he is often the “last adult in the room”.
As former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted for the magazine, Rubio is trying to maneuver within the barriers set by Trump, but at the same time dampen his worst ideas. When Trump’s friend and negotiator with Russia Steve Witkoff came up with a “” that almost exactly copied the Kremlin’s wishes, it was Rubio who had to explain in the Senate that this was not the official US position.
But Rubio’s position is shaky. Many noticed him for the first time during last year’s meeting at the White House, where Trump and Vice President Vance criticized Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the cameras for “lack of gratitude”, but also because he was not wearing a suit. Meanwhile, Rubio sat stone-faced in the same room and in front of the cameras. Later, however, he praised Trump for his courage on the social network.
European diplomats admit that Rubio appears reassuring in personal conversations, speaks in human language and does not just read empty phrases from paper. But everyone knows that Trump has the final say. Rubio can advise him, he can whisper in his ear, but he cannot decide against the will of the president, who believes that he will end the war with an agreement with Putin without the participation of the Ukrainians.
A matter of the heart in the shadow of oil
If there’s one region where Rubio hoped to leave his legacy, it’s Latin America. The fight against left-wing dictatorships in Cuba and Venezuela is in his DNA. During the first Trump administration, he was the architect of pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and advocated supporting the Venezuelan opposition.
But things have changed. Even though Trump claims to be about democracy, he is primarily interested in stopping migration and cheap oil. Rubio, who has long condemned the leftist regimes in the region and believes that his countries have the prerequisite to become powerful, thus found himself in a paradoxical situation.
After the dramatic operation of American special forces, which kidnapped Maduro directly from Caracas in early January, it became clear that America would not support the local opposition. Instead of installing Democratic opposition leader María Corina Machado, whom Rubio had supported for years, Trump preferred to negotiate with representatives of the old regime, including Vice President Delca Rodríguez.
The reason is, unsurprisingly, oil. American companies need stability for mining, and shortly after the operation, Trump doubted that the democratic opposition would be strong enough. So Rubio now has to deal with the same people he wanted to overthrow only recently, just to ensure the flow of raw materials.
Marco Rubio, who will now visit Slovakia, is no longer the same idealistic senator, and he is coming to Bratislava not only as a representative of the USA, but as an interpreter for Donald Trump. After a tumultuous January, during which US allies realized that it had resented allies, he will talk about security, nuclear energy and military modernization.
We will see exactly what Rubio will talk about with Slovak government officials on Sunday and we will follow it.
