Similarly, one would be forgiven for asking to see any evidence of a well-functioning policy process that would provide the president with different options, detail their costs and benefits, and provide coherent strategies for implementation — all of which are normally the responsibility of the national security adviser, the other hat Rubio now wears?
Indeed, few people have been better positioned to dominate U.S. foreign and national security policy than the person who currently serves as both. And yet, what is most remarkable about Rubio is the increasingly shrinking role he seems to play.
The U.S. secretary of state is the nation’s chief diplomat and foreign affairs spokesperson, responsible for carrying the U.S. flag overseas and leading diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts, prevent new ones and advance America’s national interests.
But Rubio is largely AWOL on all these efforts.
While his predecessor, Antony Blinken, traveled to the Middle East at least once a month after the region went up in flames following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Rubio has been to Israel just three times in the past 16 months. While former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger spent weeks in the region, working to forge a settlement between Israel and its neighbors after the 1973 war, Rubio hasn’t visited in over six months.
George Shultz, who was perhaps America’s best secretary of state, once said that diplomacy is like gardening: One must water the plants and pull out the weeds. In other words, one has to go there. Yet, Rubio has so far taken just 18 trips as secretary of state, spending about 75 days on the road visiting 31 countries. By comparison, in her first 16 months in office, Hillary Clinton had taken 28 trips, spent 130 days on the road visiting over 60 countries.