MAGA makeover for Marco Rubio as he evolves from Bush protégé to Trump loyalist

On issues ranging from Ukraine aid to immigration and accepting the ultimate results of the 2024 election, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has been quick to align with former President Donald Trump in recent weeks and distance himself from his own previous positions.

Rubio voted to certify the 2020 election, but now won’t commit to accept the 2024 results. He once said the mass deportation of illegal immigrants from America's borders is not "a realistic policy" but now backs Trump’s sweeping deportation plan.

And Rubio – the hawkish interventionist – voted with isolationists against the recent round of Ukraine aid in Congress that many Trump followers opposed.

It’s part of a years-long MAGA makeover for Rubio – one that many ambitious Republicans have gone through as they seek to remain relevant in an evolving party – that has accelerated amid buzz that Trump might tap the 53-year-old Florida senator as his running mate.

That Trump and Rubio could be on the same ticket may seem surprising to anyone who remembers the 2016 presidential primary, when the two men attacked each other in deeply personal terms.

Rubio at the time called Trump a “con artist” who couldn’t be trusted with the nuclear codes. Trump mocked the senator, who was seen in 2016 as the fresh face of a party desperate to appeal to Latino voters, as "Little Marco." Rubio even brought a Trump private part into the conversation, implying it is small and prompting Trump to boast otherwise.

The past eight years have brought them closer together, though, as Rubio largely embraced Trump’s agenda and refashioned himself as a more MAGA-friendly politician.

Rubio has gone from a Jeb Bush acolyte after joining the Florida Legislature in 2000 at age 28 to a darling of the GOP establishment when he ran for president in 2016. Now, he's a seasoned third-term lawmaker who seems intent on bridging the old school GOP of Ronald Reagan and the party’s new look under Trump: mainstream GOP Marco meets MAGA Marco.

Last week after Trump's guilty verdict in a trial involving hush money payments to a porn star, Rubio denounced the proceedings as "a sham political show trial like the ones Communists used against their political opponents in Cuba and the Soviet Union."

He joined seven of the most MAGA-aligned senators in signing a pledge not to confirm any of President Joe Biden's political or judicial appointments, support any non-security related federal funding increases or allow expedited consideration of most Democratic bills – efforts aimed at disrupting the Senate's business in protest of the verdict.

Rubio's crossover appeal within the GOP could be useful for Trump, who has struggled to win over a large block of traditional Republicans who have continued to cast protest votes for Nikki Haley months after the former United Nations ambassador dropped out of the 2024 race. It has helped make Rubio a leading candidate for the VP job.

Yet his evolution also has spawned detractors on both ends of the GOP spectrum, with some questioning whether he has sacrificed his principles to appease Trump and others viewing him as not sufficiently Trumpian.

"It’s embarrassing, inconsistent and obviously done out of political ambition,” said Ana Navarro, a former GOP strategist based in Florida who now cohosts "The View" and has known Rubio for years.

Whether Rubio’s balancing act is successful could determine how high he climbs in a GOP reordered by Trump.

From Jeb Bush protégé to Trump VP short list

Rubio’s presidential ambitions were once sidelined by Trump, but now they could be revived by him.

If he doesn’t get the VP job, Rubio's foreign policy credentials – he sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee – could put him in contention for the secretary of state nomination in a Trump administration. Either scenario would make him a presidential frontrunner in 2028.

But the potential proximity to Trump comes after Rubio once modeled himself on a very different politician.

In his 2012 memoir, Rubio described Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, as “the man I most admired in Florida politics.” 

Trump also defeated Bush, the son and brother of presidents, on his way to winning the GOP nomination in 2016, mocking him as “low energy Jeb” and blowing up the traditional wing of the GOP that Bush and his family exemplified for decades.

Bush supported Rubio throughout his political career, which began on the West Miami City Commission and continued in the Florida Legislature, where Bush famously gave Rubio a sword to mark his ascension to state House speaker.

"Marco is a traditional Republican,” Navarro said. “He came up under Jeb Bush’s wings. He can say whatever and vote, however, he is not MAGA.”

Dario Moreno, a political science professor at Florida International University who teaches three courses with Rubio on Florida politics, international politics and political parties, said the senator started as a more traditional Republican but steadily moved to the right.

Rubio won his first U.S. Senate race in 2010 against then Florida Gov. Charlie Crist by running on a conservative platform, running to the right of Crist, who started as a Republican but became an independent during the campaign, and later a Democrat. Yet Rubio still was viewed as a conventional conservative when he entered the Senate.

His shift further rightward began after his first big attempt at bipartisan legislation collapsed.

Gang of Eight 'amnesty' gives way to immigration hardliner

In 2012, as a freshman senator, Rubio joined with four Democratic colleagues and three other Republicans to work on immigration legislation.

They became known as the Gang of Eight and successfully passed a bill through the Senate in 2013 that included a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

The bill never became law, though, after House Republicans refused to take it up, and Rubio disavowed the legislation shortly after its Senate approval as conservative outrage mounted.

Trump ran for president in 2016 on a hardline anti-immigration message and hammered Rubio for his work on the Gang of Eight legislation.

"Marco Rubio is totally weak on illegal immigration & in favor of easy amnesty," Trump wrote on X in 2015.

By then, Rubio was emphasizing border security as Trump transformed the immigration debate with his “Build the Wall” rhetoric.

“Marco has now, he's moved more to the right on issues like, and I’m using 'right' here as more to the Trump position, on issues like immigration because I think he views (the Biden) administration as too lenient,” Moreno said.

After Trump was elected, Rubio became an early backer of his efforts to build a wall on the southern border. It was a sign that he was recalibrating his approach in a party quickly being transformed by Trump.

Rubio and Trump reconcile

Trump belittled Rubio during their 2016 contest, but his administration regularly worked with the senator on his priority issues.

Rubio is deeply immersed in foreign policy and national security issues, advocating for a tough approach to U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

At Rubio’s urging, Trump reversed former President Barack Obama’s softer approach to Cuba and imposed sanctions on Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Rubio still criticized Trump on occasion during his presidency.

In 2017, after Trump responded to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, by blaming both sides for violence that ensued during a clash between rallygoers and protesters, Rubio responded on X that the rally organizers were “100% to blame.”

“Mr. President, you can’t allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of the blame,” Rubio added. “They support idea which cost nation & world so much pain… we cannot allow this old evil to be resurrected.”

Yet Rubio was largely supportive of Trump’s agenda. He voted for all of Trump's initial Cabinet picks and in line with Trump's positions 88% of the time through early 2021, according to FiveThirtyEight. And the senator influenced the Republican administration in various ways, including successfully pushing to make a larger portion of the child tax credit refundable in Trump’s signature tax cut legislation.

Even as he moved closer to Trump, though, Rubio maintained some views that have put him at odds with the MAGA base.

In 2016 he ran for president as a staunch supporter of defending Ukraine, writing in Foreign Affairs magazine that the U.S. should arm and train Ukrainian soldiers and that Russia’s aggression is “a historic affront to the post–World War II global order on which the global economy depends.”

Rubio voted against providing additional Ukraine aid in February, though, and again in April. While saying he still supports aid, Rubio said early in the year it should be paired with border security legislation and later said the aid legislation contained other provisions he didn’t like.

Underlying the Ukraine debate was Trump and MAGA’s skepticism of more aid.

The Ukraine votes came just as VP speculation around Rubio was heating up. Since then, Rubio has staked out other positions that move him closer to Trump.

'That's where the party is going'

In May, Rubio appeared on NBC’s "Meet the Press" for an interview that drew attention for his repeated refusal to commit to accepting the 2024 election results.

Rubio was among 43 GOP senators who went against Trump and voted to certify the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.

During the interview, Rubio also said that he now supports Trump’s pledge to institute a mass deportation program for undocumented immigrants, despite saying in 2016 "I don't think it's reasonable to say you're going to round up and deport 11 million people" and "I don't think that's a plan that works."

In explaining his shift, Rubio noted there are significantly more undocumented immigrants in the country than in 2016. That also will make it harder to deport them all, though.

Rubio also voted against a bipartisan border security bill this year despite his past support for comprehensive immigration reform. The legislation was opposed by Trump.

Rubio's Senate office referred questions from USA TODAY to his political operation, which did not respond.

Trump’s team has closely monitored what potential VP candidates are saying on television, and the interview seemed to be another touchstone in Rubio’s VP audition, showing him aligning more closely with Trump.

That shouldn’t be surprising, said Tom Rooney, a former GOP congressman from Florida who was co-chair of Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign in the state. Those looking to serve in an administration often work to align themselves with the candidate, he said.

"At the end of the day, the guy calling the shots is the president and you are responsible to support that ticket and I think that everybody that you've seen that has been mentioned as VP has done some level of that," Rooney said. "And you go back through history... Republicans and Democrats alike will maybe amend slightly their views on this, that or the other to comply with the guy at the top."

Rooney noted that Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, another VP contender, once also was deeply critical of Trump.

University of South Florida emeritus political science professor Susan MacManus said that Rubio’s MAGA makeover isn't just about his personal trajectory or views. It's part of a larger shift in the GOP.

"That's where the party is going, and when you need the votes that's where you go," MacManus said. "The Republican Party has really shifted.”

Rubio’s evolution has more “legitimacy,” MacManus added, because he grew up in a working-class Hispanic community in West Miami that is increasingly embracing MAGA populism.

'Trump costume'

The GOP has made inroads with working class voters of color, despite hardline immigration rhetoric, by appealing to them on economic issues.

Rubio, the son of working-class Cuban immigrants who speaks fluent Spanish, could be a potent Trump surrogate with Hispanic voters. It's another reason he is considered a leading VP contender, even though having running mates from the same state presents complications, and Rubio might have to move to be on the ticket.

Moreno said there is little support for Ukraine aid among many of these voters.

Asked about Rubio's shifting approach to foreign policy, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton – who is known for his hawkish views – told USA TODAY he hopes "anybody whose been a Reagan Republican on national security issues... who goes into a second Trump term, I would hope they’d stay Reagan Republicans because if they don't it would just make them complicit in Trump's policies."

Political observers are watching how far Rubio will got to ingratiate himself with Trump. Many VP contenders appeared at the New York City courthouse where a jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts after a six-week trial. Rubio never did.

"I guess on the bright side, he still hasn’t shown-up to the New York City courthouse in Trump costume,” Navarro said before the trial ended.

Rubio slammed the judge in the case on X for his jury instructions in the closing days of the trial, though, and declared “there was no crime!" And his response to the verdict was scathing.

"This is a quintessential show trial, this is what you see in communist countries," Rubio said on Fox News on the day of the verdict.

The next day Rubio published an op-ed in Newsweek declaring that "a vote for anyone other than Trump is literally a vote to normalize the weaponization of government against political opponents and criminalize the traditional American way of life." Trump's campaign later blasted out Rubio's op-ed to its email list.

Speaking on "The View" recently, Navarro said "some people have emotional support dogs, Donald Trump has emotional support senators and they have been outdoing themselves as to... who can kiss the ring... worst among them is the senator from my state of Florida, Marco Rubio."

Navarro then played the Fox video clip of Rubio blasting Trump's trial and rebuked him for comparing the U.S. judicial system to Cuba's, saying "How dare you Marco, how dare you - 5,600 Cubans at least were shot in front of firing squads... how dare you use their name in vane so that you can suck up to this man."

Despite all of the senator's moves toward Trump, some MAGA followers are still skeptical of Rubio, showing his challenge in overcoming the view that he retains establishment GOP sympathies.

“Rubio is simply too much Bush-like for me,” said Randy Ross, a Florida GOP activist who chaired Trump’s 2016 campaign in the Orlando area.

Rubio’s continued appeal to more establishment-leaning Republicans is part of his attraction as a running mate, though, as Trump struggles to reach Haley voters, a problem that could be exacerbated by his felony conviction.

Rubio told USA TODAY in May that he hasn't spoken with the Trump campaign about the VP position but "I'm interested in serving America."

“We no longer talk about balanced tickets the way we used to,” said Moreno, the FIU professor. “But I think he balances Trump a little bit in the sense that he’s a little bit more establishment that Trump.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marco Rubio MAGA makeover helps senator land on Trump VP short list