Walk into a high-stakes State Department meeting with Secretary Marco Rubio, and you might catch him breaking down the Miami Dolphins’ latest game, play by play and formation by formation. Then, without missing a beat, he pivots to alliances, global threats, and America’s next move on the world stage. Football one second, foreign policy the next — multitasking, Rubio-style.
That’s just who he is, according to those who know him best: a lifelong Dolphins fan, Miami native, and now the man President Donald Trump chose to carry out his foreign policy vision. In other words, the guy with a million jobs — and somehow the time to do them.
People close to Rubio told The Daily Caller about his rapid rise, from his days as speaker of the Florida legislature to his Senate upset over Charlie Crist, and now to his position as perhaps the most powerful secretary of state since Henry Kissinger. Some of them even became emotional describing how much Rubio has shaped their lives.
Rubio has always been a foreign policy wonk, especially focused on Latin America. As President Trump has worked to reshape the region, questions have surfaced about how much influence Rubio has over that vision — or whether Rubio is simply the perfect man to turn Trump’s instincts into action.
“What you’ve seen over the past year is a level of trust and comfort,” a source close to Rubio told the Caller. That trust comes from Rubio understanding exactly what his role is — not as a rival power center, but as an executor of the president’s agenda.
From intervening in conflicts to helping bring down strongmen like Nicolás Maduro, Rubio has been everywhere. Reshaping the Western Hemisphere has long been a personal mission for the South Floridian, and now it’s also a priority for the White House.
Rubio was the first person to bring the case of Lilian Tintori, wife of Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo López, to President Trump during Trump’s first term. With Rubio’s help, Tintori met Trump in 2017.
“And Rubio, even though he wasn’t in the administration, was there to plant that seed,” said Carlos Trujillo, a longtime Rubio ally and Trump’s ambassador to the Organization of American States during Trump’s first term. “Then his entire group starts taking over some of the Western Hemisphere posts to drive policy.”
“That all started in 2017, and the architect of that was Marco Rubio,” Trujillo added.
Those close to Rubio say his success comes from understanding that his job is to enforce the president’s vision, not replace it.
“When he took the job, he understood he was there to execute the president’s foreign policy agenda,” a source said. “He came in with humility.”
Colleagues describe Rubio as thoughtful, highly intelligent, and frighteningly fast at absorbing complex issues. One source wondered aloud if he has a photographic memory.
“He reads — and not like normal people read,” an official said. “He knows exactly what’s in the briefing materials. He remembers the numbers, the background, everything.”
Another official said Rubio is usually about 30 steps ahead of whatever conversation is happening in the room.
These skills come out most clearly when Rubio discusses strategy with President Trump. One official described a shared vision of securing the Western Hemisphere without dragging Americans into endless foreign wars.
“The secretary understands how to balance those concerns — when to act, when to wait, when to talk, when to move,” the official said.
At one point, Rubio held four jobs at once: secretary of state, acting national security adviser, acting archivist of the United States, and acting administrator of USAID. Recently, Trump added another title by putting him in charge of the 2035 World Expo in Miami.
Naturally, the internet noticed. Memes started circulating about Rubio becoming the Queen of England or babysitting the Vances’ fourth child. Rubio leaned into the joke, quipping in a cabinet meeting that Labor Day had become especially meaningful to him because of all his jobs. When the Dolphins fired their head coach, Rubio joked on X that this was one position he would not be taking.
