FLIP-FLOP

Top Trump Goon Raises Eyebrows With Sudden Reversal on Trump Plans

The Cabinet member has executed a screeching U-turn on a move Republicans were praying would help rescue them from a midterm drubbing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ditched Donald Trump’s Ohio campaign stop in a mysterious reversal as the GOP scrambles to avert a midterm bloodbath.

The president’s top diplomat had been expected to accompany him to Chillicothe as Trump campaigns for Republican Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

TOXIC TRUMP

Nate Silver Lays Out Case for Landslide That Buries Trump

Martha McHardy

The State Department initially confirmed the trip and said Rubio would attend in his capacity as Trump’s national security adviser, Politico reports.

It then reversed course, citing a schedule change but declining to clarify further.

The switch came just 24 hours after the secretary joined the president in Texas for a brief appearance at a campaign event in Lubbock, where the president declared: “We love Marco.”

Rubio has largely avoided electioneering while running American diplomacy, in stark contrast to other Cabinet members, among them Attorney General Todd Blanche, who’s been considerably less shy about joining partisan events.

Republican appetite for the secretary of state’s support reflects growing panic within party ranks about the GOP’s prospects in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

Play Video

Trump’s war of choice with Iran and widespread unaffordability have helped drive the president’s approval rating down to a miserable 32 percent as Democrats enjoy an almost 9-point lead in the race for control of the House and Senate.

But Rubio, who Trump has pitted against Vice President JD Vance as his MAGA heir for 2028 by constantly asking his audiences to compare them, is currently polling well among Republican voters as a campaign surrogate and has attracted relatively little of the hostility Democrats have directed toward other administration officials, Politico reports.

“Rubio is Trump’s best asset,” GOP operative Bill Cortese told the outlet on Thursday.

The Daily Beast has contacted the State Department for comment on this story.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Will NealReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.