In his second time period as president, Donald Trump has stuffed main positions in authorities with cronies and sycophants who’ve scant {qualifications} for the roles they maintain. Fox character Pete Hegseth as secretary of warfare, freaky anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr. operating the Division of Well being and Human Providers, podcaster Kash Patel on the FBI — these are simply three prime examples.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave the impression to be an exception. Within the U.S. Senate, he developed sufficient gravitas to make him a severe contender for the Republican Occasion’s presidential nomination in 2016. After all, in that marketing campaign he was drawn into Trump buffoon land when he and the eventual nominee obtained right into a juvenile alternate. Trump razzed Rubio about his peak by dubbing him “Little Marco,” and Rubio retorted by asserting that Trump’s small fingers had been a sign of diminutive dimension in his manly gear.
Nonetheless, when Trump picked Rubio to run the State Division, he stood out among the many gaggle of goons becoming a member of the administration. He really knew one thing about overseas coverage and had strong credentials as a foe of authoritarians, corresponding to Russia’s homicidal kleptocrat, Vladimir Putin.
Now, although, Rubio has been made to appear like simply one other doofus within the clown automotive. Trump despatched Steve Witkoff, certainly one of his wealthy actual property buddies, to Moscow to conjure a deal to finish the warfare in Ukraine. Witkoff, who admits to ignorance about issues like historical past and overseas affairs, came back with a plan that would give the Russians nearly everything they want, in need of a red-carpet welcome, present baskets and spa remedies in Kyiv. The plan’s verbiage additionally seems to have been poorly translated from Russian, suggesting that Putin kind of dictated the entire thing.
The Trump administration proceeded to lean arduous on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, demanding that he conform to the deal earlier than Thanksgiving. Zelenskyy politely declined and European leaders, corresponding to French President Emmanuel Macron, had been aghast that america can be pushing for Ukraine to capitulate to Putin’s ruthless aggression.
A number of U.S. senators mentioned Rubio advised them privately that the “American” plan was only a Russian “want record.” When that little bombshell hit the information, Rubio shortly claimed that the senators had been incorrect about what he advised them and that Witkoff’s doc was, certainly, the official American place. That meant certainly one of two issues: Rubio had both advised the reality to the senators and was now mendacity about it, or no matter he had mentioned in personal, he was now pimping for a scheme that, amongst different dastardly parts, would give Putin an enormous chunk of the nation he invaded, restrict the scale of the Ukrainian military and ban Ukraine from becoming a member of NATO.
Now, as he at all times does, Trump has backed off from the peace plan deadline and Rubio is claiming Witkoff’s shenanigans have led to actual progress in negotiations to finish the warfare. Which will or will not be true, however Rubio has not come out of this brouhaha trying like a severe participant.
He simply seems to be like Little Marco.
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