US Secretary of State Marco Rubio may resign from President Donald Trump’s administration and run for the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2028 presidential election, according to the British newspaper The Independent. The paper says the possibility is being discussed in political circles in the United States and Britain.
The report says Rubio, who serves as both secretary of state and national security adviser, is preparing to seek the Republican candidacy in 2028. Vice President JD Vance is seen as his likely main rival.
Even before the Republicans’ heavy defeat in the US midterm elections, senior party figures and several top British government officials had spoken of the chance that Rubio would resign.
That talk has grown louder since the party lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterms.
Citing several sources, the report says at least four or five members of Trump’s current cabinet are preparing to leave the administration after the election rout.
According to one political source in Washington, distancing himself from the Iran war and leaving the blame for it with Trump could become important for Rubio.
A person close to Rubio said stepping away from the administration would be a reasonable decision for him, since he believes he is ahead of the other hopefuls for the Republican nomination. He cannot campaign while serving as secretary of state, the person said, and his close ties to the Trump administration could also harm his political prospects.
After the midterm defeat, Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war. “It is clear to almost everyone why we lost. The reason for the defeat is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he said.
The report also says Rubio has become comparatively quiet on Iran. Although he leads US foreign policy, the paper says he has been kept largely in the background on Middle East policy.
According to the report, Rubio has made a good impression on Britain’s foreign secretaries, having worked with three of them, including former foreign secretary David Lammy and the current one, Ed Miliband. Former foreign secretary Yvette Cooper regards him as highly able and a skilled negotiator.
A senior British government official said they are watching what Rubio does after the midterms. In the official’s view, Rubio does not seem likely to stay in the administration for long. He could be a strong presidential candidate, and they expect him to run, the official said, though Rubio’s position in the Trump administration is also quite influential.
Trump once mocked him as “Little Marco”, but Rubio is now an important member of the president’s inner circle. He holds both the secretary of state and national security adviser posts at once, the first person to do so since former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
Questions may also be raised in future about Rubio’s role in Latin America policy while in office, in particular US strikes on small boats in the Caribbean accused of carrying drugs, and Washington’s relations with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez after former president Nicolas Maduro was removed from power.
Asked last September about any plan to run for president himself, Rubio said he had no such plan for now and was fully focused on his work in the administration. He also hinted that he would stand aside if Vance runs.
A White House source, however, said there is no sign yet that Rubio will resign. If the administration is unsettled after the election, the source said, he may stay on to keep things stable.
Asked about Rubio’s plans to resign, White House spokesman Davis Ingle called The Independent’s report a baseless conspiracy theory.
The US State Department also rejected the report as “completely baseless fake news”.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report