Reports that President-elect Donald Trump plans to tap Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for Secretary of State has thrown MAGA world in uproar.
Rubio, a rather conventional Republican, has worked hard to earn Trump's favor and spoke forcefully on his behalf in recent years, but he was not part of his old guard of supporters and is viewed with suspicion by those who are.
Rubio has been facing pushback on all fronts. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has granted influence in shaping his future administration, reportedly expressed opposition to Rubio occupying a prominent foreign policy role. MAGA-minded social media users were quick to cast doubt on whether the decision was even made by Trump himself and insist that Rubio was not yet a done deal. Many of them back Richard Grenell, Trump's former acting national intelligence director, for the post.
“Folks, word of wisdom. If Trump hasn’t confirmed it on Truth [Social], don’t jump to conclusions and don’t believe everything you see,” Charlie Kirk, an influential right-wing activist, wrote in an X post.
“We are still waiting on the decision from President Trump and the campaign leadership on what their official decision is,” one Grenell ally told Politico on Tuesday morning. “What we have been hearing is that no decision has been made.”
Grenell, a friend of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, has his own enemies in Trump's inner circle, Politico reported. Many of Trump's advisors reportedly do not like his abrasive personality, his role in facilitating meetings between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and that he was actively lobbying to be Secretary of State rather than waiting for the president-elect to pick him.
MAGA voices outside of Trump's closest orbit, however, consider Grenell to be a standard-bearer for the America First agenda. Rubio, a hawkish Republican who has consistently favored American military intervention overseas, nominally diverges from Grenell and other America First proponents who say that they to want prioritize U.S. interests rather act as a world policeman.
Conservative comedian Dave Smith said Tuesday that the pick was a "disaster" and an "awful sign."
Trump "might as well give Liz Cheney the State Department," he wrote, possibly referring to Cheney and Rubio's shared support for American power projection or comparing Cheney's opposition to Trump with Rubio's uneasy conversion since the 2016 GOP presidential primaries.
But the desire to avoid costly wars is clearly a selective calculation. Many of Trump's most ardent MAGA supporters have called for a bombing campaign in Mexico to stop the flow of fentanyl, and the selection of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel was met with little backlash. Huckabee, who denies the existence of a Palestinian identity, has vowed to keep sending weapons to Israel and support their occupation of the West Bank, which he refers to as Judea and Samaria.
Despite the expressions of support for Grenell, the Trump cabinet hopeful himself pushed back on MAGA voices insisting that the fight was not over. “BS. Stop grifting. Not true," he said in response to one of those posts.
