WASHINGTON — Secretary of state is a big job. But try piling on top of that acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration and acting national security adviser.
That’s Marco Rubio’s resume right now, and it might be that way for awhile.
Rubio gained his latest title after President Donald Trump announced that Mike Waltz — who has been under scrutiny since his central role in the Signal chat leak — would be stepping down and instead be nominated for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The White House raised the possibility of Rubio taking over Waltz’s job more than a month ago, according to a senior administration official. But it was tabled until recently, when Trump decided he’d had enough of Waltz.
There is a very real possibility that Trump keeps Rubio in the national security adviser role for the long term, according to three people familiar with the matter, including two administration officials. Trump appears to be in no hurry to find a replacement.
“The president has assembled an incredibly talented team that is fully committed to putting America and Americans first,” a senior State Department official said in a statement. “Secretary Rubio looks forward to serving as his interim National Security Advisor while ensuring the mission critical work at the State Department continues uninterrupted.”
Two of the sources said Waltz’s departure had been simmering for weeks after The Atlantic reported on March 24 that he created a group chat with top administration officials on the private messaging app Signal and inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the magazine. But, one of the sources added, there was no appetite for immediately handing critics a victory by firing Waltz — leading to the decision to send him to the United Nations instead.
The senior administration official said the move was partly a lesson Trump learned from his first term: firing officials so they exit creates potential enemies who know a lot about the inner workings of the White House and how the president has operated. But moving them to a different job keeps them close.
Another senior administration official disputed this assessment, saying, “That was not part of the calculus at all.”
It’s widely expected that Waltz will get confirmed by the Senate if Trump does follow through and nominate him to be ambassador.
Several names have been mentioned as possible candidates to be the next national security adviser, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke with NBC News. They include Michael Anton, the policy planning director at the State Department; Chris Landau, deputy secretary of state; and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and one of the administration’s most influential voices on policy.
Miller did not return a request for comment Friday.
There’s also a question about who will serve as deputy national security adviser — a role that could have outsized importance if Rubio continues to hold multiple jobs.
Alex Wong, who was Waltz’s deputy, remains at the National Security Council for now, both to help with the transition and to make sure Trump’s upcoming foreign trip to the Middle East goes smoothly, according to two senior administration officials. Much of the planning for a trip — which will be Trump’s first major foreign trip in his second term, aside from attending the Pope’s funeral — is done by the council.
Rubio is the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the role of secretary of state and national security adviser at the same time.
Kristen Welker, Katherine Doyle, Garrett Haake, Courtney Kube, Abigail Williams and Gabe Gutierrez contributed.
