Secretary of State Marco Rubio is taking heat from parts of the right after he told a Mar-a-Lago crowd that President Donald Trump launched the Iran war “for you.” Some of Trump’s own supporters say the line may have sunk Rubio’s ambitions, and the party with them.
Rubio spoke Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s “Gathering of Visionaries” at Trump’s Palm Beach club, days after Republicans lost both chambers of Congress. Trump himself has acknowledged that the war’s unpopularity cost the party.
“He did it for you. Not for him. Not for anybody else,” Rubio said of Trump’s decision to confront Iran, according to a clip shared by Fox News host Sean Hannity, who presented the moment approvingly.
Conservative podcast host Kacee Allen summarized Rubio’s message: that “we all owe him deep gratitude because previous presidents ‘ignored’ the threat.”
“Meanwhile the GOP just got wiped in the midterms due to this very” war, Allen wrote.
Some on the right were blunter about it.
“Rubio just destroyed his 2028 presidential hopes by essentially echoing Trump’s statement that the destruction of the GOP was worth it to fight the Iran War and these jokers applauded him,” wrote David Pyne, editor of The Real War newsletter and a former Army headquarters staff officer. “None of them care that they just handed the keys to controlling the US to the Democrat socialists for the next decade or two.”
Pyne went further and called on Trump, Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “resign in disgrace or be impeached and removed from office.”
“@MarcoRubio just killed any chance he had to win the presidency in 2028,” wrote Pat Dollard, a former Hollywood talent agent and Breitbart writer.
Some of Trump’s own base saw a bigger reckoning. One X user, whose bio describes her as a “TradCatholic” nationalist who puts “God, Family, Country” first, said Trump had betrayed the voters who put him in office.
“It’s over! We wanted Trump to burn the establishment, he burned down the conservative Repub party by showing who he really is,” she wrote. “It will take decades to come back, if we even have a country left.”
Writer Sean Colarossi pointed to Rubio’s history with Trump. “It’s amazing how much @marcorubio has beclowned himself for a guy he once accurately called a con man,” he wrote. During the 2016 Republican primary, Rubio called Trump a “con artist.”
Rubio has been widely discussed as a potential 2028 contender. On Friday he also flew to Florida with Trump on Marine One, alongside newly named chief of staff Stephen Miller.