Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s role as the country’s top diplomat isn’t shaping out as he expected as he has found himself taking a back seat to President Donald Trump’s close friend, billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff, according to a CNN report.
Witkoff, Trump’s top Middle East negotiator and golf buddy, has played a key role in a number of high profile foreign policy wins the Trump administration has racked up in the last two months, including the release of hostages in Israel, the return of American Marc Fogel from Russian custody and a ceasefire in Gaza, which has since been broken.
“He’s jetted around the Middle East and become a key mediator in talks to end the war in Ukraine,” CNN reported. “Witkoff went back to Moscow for a face-to-face with Russian president Vladimir Putin last week to try to advance the administration’s ceasefire proposal.”
Rubio, meanwhile, “has dived into his role with trips to Central America to discuss immigration, to the Middle East, Europe and Canada for discussions on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and to meet with G7 partners,” the report said.
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“I think he is frustrated,” a senator still connected to Rubio told CNN.
The power dynamics have spurred questions about Rubio’s influence with Trump, according to CNN.
“Though Rubio was the first cabinet member confirmed— unanimously at that — his role has lacked some of the profile and portfolio traditionally enjoyed by previous secretaries of state,” the report said. “And there’s a contingent of MAGA faithful still skeptical of his hawkish foreign policy views.”
“It’s not what he expected,” one source told the network. “Witkoff came out of the blue,” they added. “Trump loves him.”
A former senior State Department official familiar with both Rubio and Witkoff called Rubio a “a real foreign policy guy,” and added to CNN: “The idea that Steve Witkoff is going to sit around with Putin in the Kremlin, I mean really. Come on, Witkoff is a golf buddy… it’s ridiculous.”