Is Marco Rubio the next Henry Kissinger?

Tammy Bruce, the State Department spokesperson, was flummoxed. “I just heard this from you,” she responded after a reporter told her at a briefing session that President Trump has appointed Marco Rubio to replace Mike Waltz as his acting National Security Advisor.

But it isn’t his final Waltz. Waltz is now headed to the United Nations, where he will fill the ambassador slot that Representative Elise Stefanik coveted but was forced to surrender, to ensure the Republicans maintain their slender majority in the House.  

News reports earlier today, first from Mark Halperin, had posited that Waltz was destined for the dustbin. The conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer claimed credit for the Waltz ouster that wasn’t, telling Politico that he had been “Loomered.” A lot of loomering does seem to be taking place in the Trump administration. Loomer seemingly played a key role in ensuring that a number of his aides were recently defenestrated, including David Feith and Thomas Broody. It was depicted by Loomer as a purge of neocons. Now Waltz himself has been neutered. Waltz was widely seen in MAGA world as a neocon stalking horse – an Iran hawk who would suborn American foreign policy on behalf of Israel. What made him vulnerable was his key role in the infamous Signal chat before the military strikes on Yemen. It was Waltz who included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg in the group, leading to the revelation that the Trump national security team was more than a little slipshod in its approach to secrecy and national security. 

The musical chairs, however, is also classic Trump. No one is better at keeping his aides on tenterhooks than him. Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been traipsing around the globe in search of a foreign policy success, are out. Not since Henry Kissinger has a top foreign policy official worn the dual hats of national security advisor and Secretary of State.  

Rubio has been most assiduous in displaying his fealty to Trump. He has had to overcome his own background as a fervent hawk. He has done this by saying whatever is necessary, whenever and wherever, to defend and laud Trump. With his new national security advisor position, Rubio will likewise move from Foggy Bottom to spend as much time as possible at the White House.  

But will Rubio prove any less hawkish than Waltz? The MAGA crew may be sorely disappointed. The likelihood is that Rubio is implied to be better at dissimulation than Waltz. But now that the Trump administration has signed a draft minerals deal with Ukraine, he has what amounts to an investment in its survival. It would not be surprising to see Rubio push for a harder line toward Russia, particularly when it comes to sanctions. In addition, Rubio was co-sponsor of a Senate bill stating that a president would need to win its approval to exit NATO. Then there is the question of an Iran deal. Once again, Rubio seems likely to seek to quash Witkoff’s efforts to reach some kind of an agreement with the mullahs in Tehran. 

Kissinger went from being national security advisor to claiming the Secretary of State position as well in Nixon’s second term. He undermined William Rogers. Little Marco, as Trump used to call him, may play a bigger role in the Trump administration than anyone had anticipated while Waltz is relegated to the backwater of the United Nations. If anyone would admire Rubio’s survival skills, it is the late Kissinger who was the ultimate Machiavellian.