Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida hasn’t visited the Manhattan courthouse to demonstrate his support for Donald J. Trump like other vice presidential candidates. He’s not a regular at the former president’s campaign rallies, nor is he part of his Mar-a-Lago estate like other Republicans who crave presence.
Instead, Rubio is taking a low-key approach in his quest to become the Republican vice presidential nominee, a strategy with a clear logic: Trump is famously irritated when someone gets too close to him in the spotlight.
But for Rubio, it’s a strategy with a history. During his 2016 run for the Republican nomination, Trump relentlessly mocked his rival’s height, ears and mannerisms. Rubio also made a tirade at a school that was received awkwardly and then painfully backfired in his defeat. Since then, the senator has been careful and cautious about approaching Trump.
Trump’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering has transformed him from a fierce rival to an occasional policy adviser and now a likely candidate to join Trump’s shortlist, according to his advisers.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, could help Trump appeal to Hispanic voters. As a more seasoned politician than the young “Republican savior” who graced the cover of Time magazine in 2013, Rubio could reassure GOP donors and moderate voters who backed former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley over Trump in the primaries. (Haley, it’s worth noting, endorsed Rubio in the 2016 presidential election.)
Trump aides and donors also see the senator as one of the candidates with little risk of causing unwanted upset for a candidate already facing multiple legal threats. Trump also has a known strong relationship with Suzie Wiles, a senior Trump campaign adviser from Florida who is handling the vice presidential search.
But it’s unclear whether Mr. Rubio’s quiet campaign will be successful. Mr. Trump has privately wondered how much Mr. Rubio wants the post, and the soft touch has troubled Mr. Trump, according to two people familiar with Mr. Rubio’s thinking.
In reality, Rubio needs to show he wants the job without being too greedy.
Another risk is that anyone around Mr Trump is at risk of being publicly humiliated again — and in Mr Rubio’s case, humiliation has crept into the conversation.
Trump told advisers that Rubio needed to move out of state to avoid potential roadblocks. It would prohibit two residents of the same state from running for president.
Rubio has lived in the Miami area for most of his life and is the father of three college students and one high school student. Trump moved his residency to Florida in 2019 and also has homes in New York and New Jersey, but he has told people he won’t change his address because voters in the state would be very upset if he were no longer a resident, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
Rubio told people that changing his residency was OK, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
A spokesman for Rubio declined to comment. A Trump campaign spokesman said only Rubio knows who he will choose as his running mate.
“Rubio’s name has been coming up a lot,” Trump told donors at an event this month.
“Everybody loves Marco, I love Marco, he’s a talented guy,” Trump said.
Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump added Rubio to his shortlist in part because of the senator’s solid support. “He can help strengthen Trump’s base of support among primary voters, be a reliable partner on governing and be ready to be president on day one,” Conway said. “He’s a master fundraiser, a foreign policy expert and a skilled television personality.”
Trump has been known to pit candidates against one another to help decide his own case, or to watch allies “fight over who loves me the most,” as he put it. Rubio has been cautious about aligning himself with Trump, but he’s starting to do so.
Rubio voted to certify the 2020 election despite pressure from Trump to overturn the results, describing it at the time as a democracy that is “underpinned by people’s faith in our elections and their willingness to abide by those results.”
Last week, he questioned whether the 2024 election will be fair and accused Democrats of undermining the credibility of the election.
“I hope we have a fair election, that there’s no room for doubt,” a combative Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Last month, Rubio, along with the other vice presidential candidates, voted against $95 billion in military aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, a bill that Trump also opposes. Despite a history of being a strong supporter of military allies, Rubio argued the money was paid for by border security and called it “moral coercion.”
“We understand that in our country, government compromise is necessary and must always be made,” Rubio said on the Senate floor, adding, “This is not compromise. This is legislative blackmail.”
Discussions of Rubio’s prospects quickly turn to the fiercely fought 2016 primary, when Trump, who is 6-foot-3 and about five inches taller than Rubio and 25 years his senior, frequently referred to the senator as “Little Marco.”
“Appearance seems very important to Trump. It’s hard to imagine him picking someone a foot shorter than him,” said Ana Navarro, a Republican consultant who supported former Florida governor Jeb Bush over Rubio and Trump in 2016. “How would you look standing next to him with your hand raised?”
Mocking Rubio’s height was just one of a long list of insults Trump unleashed in the weeks leading up to the 2016 Florida presidential primary. Trump also called Rubio “a neurotic, insensitive person with the biggest ears I’ve ever seen,” slammed Rubio’s Senate record, and declared him weak on illegal immigration but strong on amnesty. Rubio responded by calling Trump a small-handed, tanned trickster who avoided the Vietnam War because of a “squash injury.”
Trump ended up winning Florida by nearly 20 percentage points and Rubio suspended his presidential campaign to seek a second term in the Senate. The two men hadn’t spoken for seven months until just before the election, when their campaigns grew nervous about a general election win in Florida, according to three people with knowledge of the conversations.
Trump’s respect for Rubio appears to have grown since he won the White House: Rubio garnered 4.8 million voters in the Senate election, compared with 4.6 million Floridians who supported Trump.
For months, whenever Trump spoke to Rubio, he would regularly ask how he managed to get so many votes in the state, according to two people familiar with the matter.
It was part of a charm offensive that continued when Trump invited Rubio to dinner at the White House during his first weeks in office, and Rubio saw it as an opportunity to influence Trump’s priorities.
Rubio continued to advise Trump on foreign policy, particularly issues regarding Venezuela and Cuba, and worked with the Trump administration on expanding the child tax credit and pandemic aid bills.
That experience may also help reassure traditional Republicans who have been wary of backing Trump for a second term. Rubio, who turned 53 on Tuesday, has spent roughly half his life in city, state and federal office.
But while Rubio’s youth may be fading, his ambition and political potential are not, and that combination has even worried some Trump critics, including former Florida Rep. David Jolly.
“Marco Rubio will help Donald Trump win the White House in November,” said Jolly, who called herself “not a Marco fan” after deciding to leave the Republican Party due to Trump’s influence on the party. “He’s the perfect surrogate for Haley’s supporters. He speaks Trumpism without trying to be Trump, and he’s mature and level-headed. He’s a star, but he’s only been a quiet star lately.”
