Ashley Parker

I'll speak to one turning point early that I think gets missed, because you're right.

I mean, many of us are old enough to remember little Marco in 2016 running against Trump and being sort of viscerally appalled by everything Donald Trump stands for and represents.

So he's not an obvious choice to be in Trump's administration in any way, shape or form.

And he gets in and it's kind of interesting to see what he's going to do.

And early on, this is during the Doge era and the, you know, best friendship with Elon Musk era.

Elon Musk is annoying, to put it mildly, a lot of these cabinet secretaries, right?

Because he's going in with a sledgehammer.

He is doing things that are not helpful at their agencies.

And keep in mind, he decimates USAID, which is something Rubio has been arguing for more funding for during the Biden administration.

And Rubio's sort of had enough.

And in this private cabinet meeting, he just goes head to head with Elon Musk and really stands up to him.

goes after him and says, you know, what, like what you're saying is bullshit, essentially, and you're hurting things.

And there's a few other cabinet secretaries, Sean Duffy among them, who also take part in this.

But someone told Michael and I afterwards that in Trump's eyes and estimation, that was a real turning point.

And again, this is someone who, even though there aren't the warring factions this time that there were in the first term, this is someone who

who likes a cage fight, right?

I believe we're actually having a cage fight or something close to it on Trump's birthday as part of America 250 on the lawn of the White House.

And to see Marco Rubio kind of stand up for himself in such a strong way, I think helped Trump just mentally say, oh, this isn't little Marco anymore.

And that's one of the first times when he really rises in his power in the administration.

And one thing that I think is misunderstood about Trump, but that has allowed Rubio to have a big influence in foreign policy, is Trump is not sort of the pure, say, Rand Paul isolationist that a lot of his base hoped he would be or understood him to be.