Rubio, as influential as Kissinger: Trump officially confirms him as his secretary of state and permanent national security advisor

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will formally assume another influential position in President Donald Trump's administration in the area of foreign policy, after the president signed an order officially appointing him as permanent national security advisor, according to a White House official who spoke to MS NOW and Fox News on Tuesday. The decision further expands Rubio's already extensive portfolio of responsibilities during Trump's second term. Before becoming secretary of state, Rubio served as a U.S. senator from Florida and has since taken on several additional responsibilities within the administration.

Rubio has performed these duties on an interim basis since May 2025, when then-National Security Advisor Michael Waltz left the post and later became the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. With this new appointment, Rubio will continue to oversee the National Security Council's operations and serve as a direct liaison between Trump and the administration on key national security matters.

Trump has publicly defended Rubio's ability to handle the administration's demanding workload. After appointing him acting national security adviser last year, the president said, "When I have a problem, I call Marco. He takes care of it."

Rubio's expanded responsibilities have also fueled speculation about his political future, to the point where his name has been mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2028 alongside Vice President JD Vance. Despite this, the secretary of state has reiterated several times that he has no plans to take this step, assuring that his mind and focus are on his current role in the White House.

Rubio's mounting responsibilities have also become a source of online humor, as supporters and critics of the administration have shared edited images showing him taking on an ever-increasing number of roles within the federal government.

Trump previously appointed Rubio as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), shortly after he took office as Secretary of State. He was also designated acting U.S. Archivist, a position he held from February through December 2025.

Rubio and Kissinger: An exceptional precedent

Rubio's permanent appointment puts him in an extremely small group of U.S. officials who have held the positions of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor simultaneously. Only Henry Kissinger has held both positions at the same time, serving in President Richard Nixon's administration in the 1970s.

Kissinger became Nixon's national security adviser in 1969, before taking office as Secretary of State in 1973. By holding both positions, he wielded unusually broad influence over U.S. foreign policy during a period marked by the Cold War, the U.S.-China rapprochement, and diplomacy related to the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

Rubio's appointment thus revives a structure that had not been replicated in more than five decades and grants him a formal role at the center of both the Department of State and the White House's national security decision-making process, making him the most important figure in a Trump administration determined to leave its mark on foreign policy.