Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he intends to remain in President Donald Trump’s administration through the president’s term, countering a Bloomberg report that aides had considered his departure after midterm losses.
A White House memorandum dated Nov. 5 lists Rubio as national security adviser, while the U.S. Department of State identifies him as secretary of state. That gives him two senior foreign-policy roles at once. Department of State history says Henry Kissinger was the first to hold both posts, serving concurrently as national security adviser until Nov. 3, 1975.
Bloomberg reported that Rubio and advisers had discussed options after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections. The outlet cited people familiar with those talks, who said Rubio had not decided whether to leave and no date had been set for a decision. Some sources told Bloomberg that Rubio discussed a possible departure with White House officials, who asked him to stay.
In a Nov. 5 interview at his White House office with The New York Times, Rubio said, “Working for President Trump until the end of his term has always been my plan.” He also declined to discuss whether he would seek the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.
Dylan Johnson, the State Department’s assistant secretary for global public affairs, criticized reports based on anonymous sources in an X post, calling them “completely baseless fake news.” Johnson had previously told Bloomberg that Rubio had not discussed leaving; EconoTimes covered that statement in an earlier report on the State Department’s response.
The Associated Press (AP) called Democratic control of the Senate at 11:36 p.m. ET Nov. 3 and the House at 1:24 a.m. ET Nov. 4. Those calls projected which party would control each chamber; they did not mean every race had been certified, and some contests remained uncalled.
Bloomberg’s sources reported no timetable for a decision, and Rubio did not provide one in his interview.
