An analysis of footage from Donald Trump’s Cabinet meetings has revealed which of his underlings works hardest to convince the president he really is the fairest of them all.
“On average, at least one of every six sentences either flattered Mr Trump, gave him credit or criticized his political opponents,” The New York Times found after digging through more than 12 hours of video from meetings of the country’s most powerful public officials. “Many of these statements are exaggerated or not factually accurate.”
Topping the list is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, the Times revealed, “both spoke and flattered the president the most” throughout the 12 hours of analyzed footage. The newspaper helpfully included some extracts from the meetings to give a flavor of his comments.
“There’s only one leader in the world that’s capable of bringing the two sides to a table, and that’s our president, the president of the United States, President Trump,” Rubio said of Trump’s efforts on the Russia-Ukraine War. “The only chance we have for peace is through the president’s leadership.”
Trump retook the White House last year after pledging to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war on “day one” of his second presidency. He blamed the war largely on his predecessor, President Joe Biden. It is now day 492 of Trump’s second term, with no peace deal in sight.
Rubio has offered much the same assessment of Trump as the “only leader in the world that can help end it” of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the civil war in Sudan. The Israel-Hamas conflict remains subject to a shaky ceasefire that Israeli forces have been repeatedly accused of violating. The Sudanese civil war remains as ongoing as it was more than three years ago.
The fact that Rubio has emerged as one of the most successful members of Trump’s Cabinet may not be a coincidence.
He’s come a long way since 2016, when Trump dubbed him “Little Marco,” in a jibe about Rubio’s height. Rubio has now presided over a sweeping reorganization of foreign policy and dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, while helping steer Trump’s lightning invasion of Venezuela and war with Iran.
He’s also become the only official since Henry Kissinger to hold the post of secretary of state and national security adviser. Trump has even joked he might make Rubio, who is of Cuban heritage, the president of Cuba if his administration topples the communist island nation’s regime.
That success has buoyed Rubio in the polls. A survey released earlier this month put him at 45.4 percent among Republican voters for the 2028 nomination—comfortably ahead of the previous favorite, Vice President JD Vance at just 29.6 percent, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 11.2 percent.
Rubio has nevertheless been coy about his prospects. “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” he told Vanity Fair in December. A touching display of loyalty, quite possibly calibrated for an audience of one.
Other front-runners in the Times’ analysis include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who credits Trump with having “saved this country by making it the best place in the world to do business again,” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said of Trump’s Venezuela operation in January that “no other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way to be that effective.”
“Notably, some of these talking points are traceable to Mr. Trump himself,” the newspaper pointed out.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and State Department for comment on this story.
