We May Have Arrived at the ‘Marco Rubio Moment’

New York Times columnist Russ Douthat describes Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “the most interesting figure in the administration right now.” Rubio isn’t dominating headlines with controversy or spectacle, and that restraint may be exactly why he has become so influential.

According to Douthat, Rubio has quietly shaped a more hawkish foreign policy while avoiding the political downsides that often come with it. He has “somehow avoided becoming either a media fixation or a major player in the right’s unfolding psychodrama,” Douthat writes, while steadily consolidating power. Rubio now holds significant authority, including the national security adviser role, in what Douthat calls a “Kissingerian” concentration of influence—yet he has done so without creating many visible enemies.

Douthat notes that he was skeptical of Rubio’s foreign policy views during the 2016 campaign and remains wary of military intervention in general. Still, he credits the Trump administration for its handling of Iran’s nuclear program, arguing that the bombing campaign did not trigger the feared backlash or spiral into a broader regime-change war. He also sees the administration’s approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a pragmatic mix of firmness and restraint.

The next major test, Douthat argues, is Venezuela—a country where Rubio’s long-standing interests are most directly involved and where the moral and strategic justifications for intervention are weaker. The outcome is uncertain and could end badly. But Douthat concludes that power inevitably tests ambition, and the mere fact that the administration is seriously pursuing a strategy of regime change in Latin America suggests that something long anticipated—but never fully realized—in the 2016 campaign may finally be happening: the arrival of a true “Marco Rubio moment.”

Readers can find the full column in The New York Times.

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