Marco Rubio’s Growing Power in Trump’s Second Term

Editor’s Note: This profile is part of New Times’ People to Watch issue, spotlighting figures we expect to make a big impact in Miami in 2026.

Marco Rubio is collecting job titles like Infinity Stones.

A former Republican senator from Florida, Rubio is now serving as the country’s secretary of state, interim national security advisor, and acting archivist. Depending on who you ask, he’s also got his hands full as the Trump administration’s official Font Czar, Air Force One’s resident mummy, Vice President JD Vance’s BFF, and — as the internet has relentlessly trolled — the new manager of Manchester United, the prime minister of Greenland, and the new Michelin Man.

But beneath the memes and ever-growing list of job titles is a more serious reality: the 54-year-old Cuban-American from Miami has emerged as a key figure in President Donald Trump’s second term and one of the most powerful and influential figures in Washington.

Rubio did not respond to New Times‘ requests for comment.

A constant figure in right-wing politics who earned a zero out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard in 2022 thanks to his stalwart anti-LGBTQ and anti-choice voting record, Rubio served for nearly a decade as a Republican state legislator before being elected to U.S. Congress in 2010. And despite his history of being relentlessly mocked by Trump (you may recall “little Marco”), the president nominated Rubio for Secretary of State in November 2024, and the Senate confirmed him shortly after in January 2025.

Since being hand-chosen by Trump as the 72nd United States Secretary of State, Rubio has been thrust into the center of foreign crises across the globe in places like Venezuela, Iran, and Ukraine. He notably played a key role in the U.S. military’s stunning capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Cuba. Following Maduro’s capture, Trump said that Rubio would help “run” Venezuela through the resulting upheaval.

For Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants whose anti-communist worldview was forged amid Miami’s Cuban-exile politics, the campaign against Maduro hasn’t just been about Venezuela – it’s been described as a strategic stepping-stone toward Rubio’s long-held belief that regime change in Venezuela could eventually lead to the collapse of the Castro regime in Havana.

“He has always been – and I think this is the right word – obsessed with Cuba and bringing down the regime there,” Ernesto Castañeda, the director of Latin American studies at American University, told the Guardian. “That explains his worldview. That’s how he got elected many times in Florida, and now he’s espousing that policy in the White House.”

Rubio has suggested that weakening Maduro’s government could strip Cuba of economic and intelligence support, creating conditions for political upheaval on the Caribbean island. In a press conference held just one day after Maduro’s capture, Rubio warned that Cuba’s government could be the administration’s next target.

“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government,” Rubio said, “I’d be concerned.”

Days later, after Trump vowed to force Venezuela to cut off Cuba’s oil lifeline, the president quipped that Rubio might soon have a new job to add to his laundry list of titles: President of Cuba.

“Sounds good to me,” Trump replied to a social media post that jokingly suggested the idea.