Whether you view it as a long and winding road or a curious journey, Marco Rubio’s path to becoming a key figure in Donald Trump’s foreign policy and national security team for a potential second term is a remarkable political turnaround.

Currently, Rubio’s prominent involvement in the Venezuela initiative underscores his influential position.

Reflecting back a decade, Rubio was the final contender blocking Trump from the 2016 Republican nomination, enduring a fierce and uneven battle.

Let’s not forget that Rubio was the one who ridiculed Trump’s supposedly small hands on national television, sparking Trump’s infamous ‘Little Marco’ retort—a moment that Republicans continue to recall with a blend of fondness and chagrin, much like watching old family videos.

He was also, lest we forget, the guy who mocked Trump’s allegedly small hands on national television, prompting Trump to fire back with the immortal ‘Little Marco’ routine that Republicans still quote with the kind of affectionate embarrassment usually reserved for old family VHS tapes.

But politics, especially Trump-era politics, plays out via a hydraulic series of hothouse vignettes – pressure builds, alliances shift and yesterday’s combatant becomes tomorrow’s consigliere.

Rubio has learned to adapt more quickly than most.

After the 2016 primary humiliation, he set about building relationships in and around Trump World with the determination of a man who had studied the map, thrown out the map and designed his own.

Pictured in a photo released by the White House Saturday afternoon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has become the fully empowered foreign-policy and national-security helmsman of Donald Trump’s second term

A decade ago, Rubio was the last man standing between Trump and the 2016 Republican nomination – battered, bruised and outmatched

One of the earliest and most consequential of those relationships was with Ivanka Trump.

Their work together during the first term – particularly on childcare tax credits and family-leave policy – created a channel of trust and familiarity that mattered far more in Trump’s inner court than any Senate floor speech or think-tank essay. The project itself was not sweeping legislation – Washington rarely rewards anyone with sweeping legislation anymore – but the collaboration mattered. It placed Rubio in the rare category of Republican lawmakers who could engage the Trump family without friction or fear.

Then came the bond with JD Vance, now vice president, which has become one of the defining political friendships of this administration.

Young dads Rubio and Vance share a worldview that blends populism with realism and a suspicion of foreign entanglements with a willingness to wield American power when justified.

Mark Halperin is the editor-in-chief and host of the interactive live video platform 2WAY and the host of the video podcast ‘Next Up’ on the Megyn Kelly network

They are also, in a way that matters more than ideology, temperamentally aligned: both bookish strivers, both sons of hardship, both fluent in the twin languages of ambition and humor. Rubio’s deference to Vance about 2028 is genuine – or at least genuinely polite – but no one who knows either man believes the conversation ends there. The lanes will open again someday, perhaps as a ticket pairing for the next round.

Rubio’s longtime Florida connection with Susie Wiles didn’t hurt either. Wiles, equal parts tactician and gatekeeper, has become the most influential unelected figure in Trump’s operation. Her respect for Rubio, and Rubio’s for her, smoothed many of the lingering burrs between the senator and Trump. In this White House, personal chemistry isn’t everything, but it is often the foundation of power.

Rubio’s résumé didn’t hurt, of course. His years in the Senate – particularly his tenure as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee – gave him the kind of grounding in classified briefings, covert capabilities and geopolitical nuance that Trump prizes when he is deciding whom to trust.

Being a father of young children, while simultaneously serving as both secretary of state and national security adviser, has also shaped Rubio’s approach. He is not a man who sees the world as just a chessboard; he also sees it as a place where decisions ricochet into the lives of families, including his own.

And because constant global travel is incompatible with the two jobs and four kids, he has been more than happy to let his globe-trotting envoy, Steve Witkoff, rack up the miles and absorb the jet lag while he stays closer to the Sit Room and the Oval.

One of the earliest and most consequential of Rubio’s relationships was with Ivanka Trump (pictured in 2019 during a meeting with Republican senators to discuss paid family leave)

Rubio’s bond with JD Vance, now vice president, has become one of the defining political friendships of this administration

Susie Wiles, (pictured with Rubio in December 2025) has become the most influential unelected figure in Trump’s operation. Her respect for Rubio, and Rubio’s for her, smoothed many of the lingering burrs between the senator and Trump

And then there is the identity piece: Rubio is a Latino American, the son of Cuban immigrants, raised in the gravitational pull of a community defined by exile, trauma, resilience and a deep understanding of strongmen. He didn’t have to study someone like Nicolás Maduro – he grew up surrounded by the emotional and political residue of gangsters just like him.

Rubio was born to confront thugs of that sort and trained to do it with both finesse and muscle. In this administration, he has done exactly that.

Rubio is great on television – smooth, serious, unflappable – which Trump notices. He is loyal without being sycophantic, which Trump values more than he usually admits. And Trump now trusts him as much as, if not more than, anyone else on matters of foreign policy and national security.

If Trump is the architect of this kinetic, high-velocity second-term doctrine, Rubio is the structural engineer making sure the beams hold.

Stephen Miller – another figure with whom Rubio has quietly cultivated a strong working relationship – was also by Trump’s side during the recent weekend mission involving Maduro. Miller is playing a major role as well, particularly on legal and diplomatic framing. Rubio, ever the pragmatist, welcomes the partnership. He is not territorial; he is task oriented.

All of this explains why Rubio is one of the very small handful of aides who are in the room when it happens – whether the Situation Room at the White House, the Oval Office or the Mar-a-Lago parlor where so many of Trump’s most important decisions now begin or end. He is present not because he has demanded to be, but because Trump wants him there.

And that brings us back to the future. Rubio insists he will defer to Vance on whatever comes after 2028, that he has no current designs on another presidential run. But everyone who has watched Rubio’s career – from his early days as the Florida House Speaker, to his first breathtaking rise in national politics, to his fall and resurrection – knows better than to imagine he is done. 

The same blend of talent, calculation, and ambition that carried him from Trump antagonist to Trump confidant is still there, sharpened now by experience and elevated by proximity to ultimate power.

It’s been a long journey, yes. But Marco Rubio has always been built for long journeys. And this one isn’t over.