At the 2017 hearing at Sen, Capitol Hill. Marco Rubio described a dark and fantastical vision of American life.
“Imagine that the US had basically taken over the Supreme Court and had an administrative body that had political peers,” Rubio said. “(Imagine that) we’ve cancelled all the funds and all the functions of Congress, both the House and Senate.”
Rubio spoke about the situation in Venezuela. In that country, Strongman Nicholas Maduro effectively dissolved Parliament and canceled the election. Rubio condemned the move towards authoritarianism.
Eight years later, Rubio is Trump’s Secretary of State at a pivotal moment. The president is reshaping America’s global reputation with his fundamental moves at home and abroad. His administration appears to be against federal court orders regarding deportation. It is promised to deport legal residents who oppose the purposes of American foreign policy. Rubio is not only a supporter of Trump’s moves, but he is also an active participant.
The United States is never under Maduro. However, critics say some of Trump’s actions are reminiscent of slides into authoritarianism in other countries.
Rubio’s detractors say he has evolved from a self-proclaimed defender of the rule of law to an opportunistic Trump apologetic.
However, supporters say Rubio is always motivated by his beliefs in America. Now, Trump is the defender of that vision.
“He was in America before it was cool,” said Rep. Aaron Bean, one of the top EUs at the Florida home’s Rubio in the 2000s. “That always was true for Marco.”
Rubio’s political spokesman redirected the question to a US State Department spokesman who refused to respond to a request for comment.
For over a decade, Rubio has gained a reputation as a serious foreign policy thinker in Washington. He was a key adviser to the first Trump administration’s foreign policy in Latin America, and was unanimously confirmed as Secretary of State by a Senate colleague in January.
Some Senate Democrats say they regret the vote. Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy said he assumed Floridians would push back some of Trump’s impulses when he voted to confirm Rubio.
“I… Marco Rubio will stand up to him when Donald Trump comes to him and says, ‘Please help us get America closer to Russia,” Murphy told CNN this month. “Rubio isn’t.”
Rubio was in the oval office in February for an explosive meeting with Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Voldy Mie Zelensky. At the meeting, Trump accused Zelensky of not fully grateful for American aid in the fight against Russia.
Since then, Rubio has found himself constantly caught up in Trump’s controversy.
Earlier this month, Rubio appeared to tease the order when District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to stop the removal of more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador. He reposted a message written to X by Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
“Oopsie…too late,” Bukel wrote, followed by a “crying laugh” emoji.
On Thursday, at an event in New College, Florida, Trump’s top official said the administration would not let the judges stop future deportation.
Rubio promised something like that when the Trump administration moved earlier this month to expel Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident who was a protester at Columbia University’s Israel-critical protester.
“If you apply to enter the US and get a visa, you’re a guest,” Rubio told CBS citizens. “When I applied for a visa, I said, “I came to the US to join the US and I am against the interests of US foreign policy.” โ
Halil, a Palestinian who is married to a US citizen, is not said to have effectively supported Hamas, which the US considers as a terrorist group. However, while a student at Columbia University, he attended a rally critical of Hamas’ wartime Israel in Gaza.
“They did what they did to him for his speech, and that’s unconstitutional,” said Tracy McLin, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Florida Levin University School of Law.
A few days after his arrest, the Trump administration accused him of withholding information about his application and becoming a legal permanent resident. Khalil’s lawyer said the new claim was a “weak” attempt to avoid the First Amendment issue of the arrest.
And when the Trump administration moved to a one-sided termination program funded by Congress, Rubio was there to pick up the slack. In February, Trump announced that he had dissolved the US International Development Agency. This is an organization Rubio had previously praised. Trump has put a decline in the institution’s portfolio under Rubio.
Trump’s comments on some of these moves rarely lowered temperatures for those worried about the growth potential of the presidency.
“Those who save their country are not violating the law,” he wrote on X in February.
When a federal judge ordered the administration’s deportation, Trump called out for his bounce each and got a rare responsibilities from Supreme Court Judge John Roberts.
Some jurists say Trump’s efforts to integrate power over Congress and the courts constitute a crisis in the American political system. However, McLinn said, in his view, the country has not reached a point of crisis.
“‘Constitutional crisis’ is a term that is stolen far more frequently than it originally was,” McLinn said.
But Stanley Fish, a presidential scholar who lives in New College, Florida, said many things remain uncertain.
The US government relies on the willingness of people to comply with the judgments of agencies like courts, Fish said.
“When that trust and drive disappears, we are in very unknown and perhaps dangerous territory,” Fish said.