Secretary of State Marco Rubio is growing increasingly frustrated as President Trump sidelines him from key foreign policy decisions, a new report reveals. According to Gabriel Sherman in a Vanity Fair article published on Tuesday, Rubio feels excluded from important discussions despite being the country’s top diplomat.
The situation came to light after a heated argument between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which led to Zelensky being kicked out of the White House. Rubio was present during the exchange, but notably kept quiet.
“Rubio quickly fell in line after the incident with Zelensky, but the confrontation exposed deeper issues within the administration,” Sherman wrote. “Rubio, who has long been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and a critic of Russia, has privately expressed his anger at being marginalized, even though he holds the title of Secretary of State.”
“One source said Rubio is often the last to know about foreign policy moves,” the report noted.
According to multiple sources close to the White House, Rubio is often the last to know about major foreign policy decisions. One insider said that Rubio’s frustration has been building for months, especially after Trump appointed nine foreign policy envoys to handle high-stakes issues like the wars in Gaza and Ukraine—appointments that seemed to bypass him.
Two sources also revealed that Rubio was taken aback when Trump made the controversial decision to strip former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of his government security detail—a move Rubio reportedly did not agree with.
Rubio’s growing sense of being sidelined is particularly striking given his previous record. In the Senate, he was one of the strongest advocates for sending military aid to Ukraine and took a much more aggressive stance on foreign policy than Trump. His shift in approach has raised eyebrows among his colleagues, with Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) even comparing Rubio’s change of heart to being “lobotomized.”
Before his confirmation as Secretary of State, many in the diplomatic community doubted whether Rubio would succeed in the role, with some predicting he wouldn’t last even a year. His continued frustrations suggest that those concerns may have been well-founded.
