Marco Rubio is portrayed as one of the Trump administration’s star performers as US secretary of state. A versatile, opportune and fluent politician from Cuban-American roots in Florida, he has adapted his positions and beliefs adroitly to Trump’s. Rubio gave full voice to the new US doctrine of great power geopolitics, ethno-cultural identity and national interests set out in his department’s National Security Strategy. The Trump administration’s determined ideological internationalism was seen in Rubio’s Slovakian and Hungarian meetings with leaders who oppose deepening European integration. Rubio’s European message is crafted to appeal but calculated to draw unwary Europeans into a political trap they should reject.

Source: The Irish Times February 16, 2026 21:31 UTC