How ‘Little Marco’ found Trump’s favor and became the ‘Secretary of Everything’ with four jobs

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has come a long way from “little Marco,” the name Donald Trump gifted his then-rival for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, when Rubio labeled him a “con artist” who cheated workers after never having worked a day in his life himself.

Rubio, nearly 10 years later, has more job titles than anyone in the Trump administration.

He’s the secretary of state, the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration, and, now, Trump’s interim national security adviser.

It’s likely a record in modern American history, and makes Rubio the only person to hold both the titles of secretary of state and national security adviser at the same time other than Henry Kissinger.

Trump named Rubio as the acting national security chief after the departure of Mike Waltz, whose chat with top administration officials on the encrypted messaging app Signal — where they discussed plans to bomb Houthis in Yemen while a journalist was in the thread — has blown up into an international scandal drawing lawsuits and investigations.

But Rubio’s accumulation of titles raises questions about whether he can juggle them all, as what The New York Times labeled the “secretary of everything,” or if the administration intends for Rubio to seriously manage them at all.

The Independent has requested comment from the White House.

As Trump’s secretary of state, Rubio has been central to the president’s anti-immigration agenda, from fielding El Salvador’s offer to imprison U.S. citizens and publicly defying judge’s orders to “facilitate” the return of a wrongly deported man, to revoking visas for hundreds of international students and threatening to deport activists who demonstrated against Israel’s war in Gaza.

He was unanimously confirmed by his now-former Senate peers, but his appointments to other roles were embroiled in the president’s retribution campaign across the federal government, now at the center of several legal battles and intense scrutiny from Democratic officials, as the president and his allies crush agencies and purge disloyal staff.

Rubio directed the freezing of all foreign aid shortly after Trump entered office, fueling the effective shutdown of virtually all USAID missions, despite receiving warnings that the closure of the global relief program would lead to thousands of deaths and disease outbreaks.

He assumed the title of acting USAID administrator in February and is now moving what remains of the largely dissolved agency into the State Department.

After the resignations of the acting archivist and several senior staff members at the National Archives and Records Administration, which was at the center of the classified documents criminal case against the president before entering office, Rubio assumed control of the agency.

On Thursday, Trump announced on Truth Social that Waltz was leaving the White House, marking one of the first major shakeups in the administration, shortly after the president and his allies celebrated his 100th day in office.

In that same post, Trump announced Waltz as his nominee to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, a role initially picked for Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose nomination was withdrawn after the administration feared a Democratic candidate would win an upcoming election in her district while the GOP holds only the slimmest of majorities in Congress.

Rubio isn’t the first government official to hold multiple titles. He’s also not the only one in the Trump administration to do so; far-right conspiracy theorist and FBI director Kash Patel, as well as Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, were both appointed interim chiefs of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins was also appointed acting director of the Office of Government Ethics.

Occupying several roles “at once is never ideal — directing government agencies and programs is a significant task that demands attention and focus,” according to watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“But Rubio’s current positions are uniquely concerning,” as he oversees the “unprecedented” and “rapid and potentially illegal dismantling” of USAID while Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency take “slash-and-burn approach” to the agency, CREW said.

That raises “significant concerns” about the preservation of the agency’s records, CREW wrote.

But Rubio is also leading the agency designed to protect them.

“This is where Rubio’s multiple appointments come to a head,” according to CREW. “How can he be both the administrator of an agency that may be failing to follow the Federal Records Act and be the nation’s archivist, responsible for ensuring that agencies follow that very law?”

The announcement of Rubio’s appointment as acting national security adviser came as a surprise to his own spokesperson.

A reporter read Trump’s Truth Social post to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce while she was in the middle of a briefing to reporters on Thursday.

“It is clear that I just heard this, from you” she said.

Appearing to scramble to explain whether she even knew that was a possibility, she said: “One thing that I certainly have learned is that things don’t happen until the president says there’s going to happen. So, the fact that that is — what was that, obviously, Truth Social? Yeah, so that is the miracle of modern technology and social media. So that is an exciting moment here.”

Rubio has “worn several hats from day one” since entering the administration, she said.

Asked whether she had any insights on the decision-making, she said: “No, I can’t, but thanks for asking.”