By Secretary of State Marco Rubio should leave the Trump administration and put some distance between himself and the war in Iran, a political ally told The Independent after Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress. The White House had a few words for the paper Thursday. Rubio himself has given no public indication that he plans to resign.
Republican figures and British officials had been watching for a possible Rubio exit even before Tuesday’s returns came in. One Washington insider offered a blunt assessment of what the secretary of state, who also serves as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, would need to do to run for president in 2028. He would have to “distance himself from the Iran war and pin that one on Trump.”
“It makes complete sense for him to step down and leave the administration. Rubio is the leading candidate at the moment to be the [Republican] nominee. He’s definitely ahead of Vance. But he cannot run while he is still secretary of state and being tied to the administration will only harm his prospects anyway,” the Rubio ally told the paper.
Trump has done his part to encourage the rivalry. At a Rose Garden dinner in May, the president took his own poll of the guests. “Who likes JD Vance?” he asked. “Who likes Marco Rubio?” An Emerson College survey that month put Vance ahead by a single point, 36 percent to 35 percent. By October, the RealClearPolling average had Vance leading Rubio by about 15 points, a considerably less favorable picture for the secretary than his ally painted this week.
There’s also the question of whether Rubio would challenge Vance in the first place. Rubio has said he would support the vice president if he runs. Vance, for his part, left the door open to sitting out 2028 during an October town hall in Michigan. He cited his four young children and said he expected to give the decision more thought after the midterms.
On Iran, Vance offered his own verdict as soon as the votes were in. “The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone … The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance said. “Any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.” British officials who worked with Rubio told The Independent he had taken a quieter role on Iran than his two titles might suggest.
Even the paper’s sources split on what Rubio would do next. One Republican predicted as many as five cabinet members could head for the exits with Democrats poised to take over congressional investigations. An administration insider said Rubio had shown no sign of wanting to leave, while another person close to the White House suggested the losses might give him a reason to stay and help steady the administration.
Earlier in the year, Rubio gave a speech about the threats facing The West in which he seemed like the obvious next leader of the Free World.
The State Department dismissed the report, and White House spokesman Davis Ingle dispensed with the usual Washington courtesy. “The president has assembled a united team focused on his America First agenda, and they will continue winning for the American people no matter how much it upsets the glue-sniffing hacks at The Independent.”
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