Marco Rubio became secretary of state on Donald Trump’s first day back in office, with unanimous Senate support and celebration from human rights activists from around the world. Now, just a few weeks into the role, Rubio’s old allies are reeling.
Democrats who voted for him aren’t sure if Rubio is even the one calling the shots in the department he leads as tech billionaire Elon Musk moves to consolidate his own power in the government. Human rights groups are demoralized, stuck begging for their already-funded organizations to receive those funds after Trump ordered Rubio’s department to halt aid for a review of priorities.
“Secretary Rubio has been incredible on these issues,” said Annie Wilcox Boyajian, interim president of the advocacy organization Freedom House, speaking on a panel at this year’s International Religious Freedom Summit. “I would just urge, as he undertakes his review, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Not only has the State Department, under Rubio’s leadership, stopped the flow of most foreign aid, but it’s also halted funding for organizations designed to promote liberty in authoritarian countries. He has justified the Trump administration’s moves to unilaterally dissolve a foreign aid agency that is funded and authorized by Congress. And he has appointed Darren Beattie — a MAGA diehard who has said “competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,” who has called for America to abandon democratic, self-governed Taiwan to the Chinese government and who has denied genocide is happening in Xinjiang — to fill a top State Department position.
Democrats are trying to get answers from Rubio, but they told NOTUS they don’t know how much power he really has.
“I have spoken with Secretary Rubio on several occasions to raise my concerns about the stop work orders on humanitarian assistance, and he’s indicated that he’s trying to address that,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. “Sadly, Elon Musk seems to be making decisions.”
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, another member of the committee, made a similar point.
“Doesn’t seem to be much to do in the secretary of state’s job right now, seeing that some of the most important functions seem to be run by special envoys and Elon Musk,” he told reporters when asked about Rubio. “My sense is that he didn’t know much about this USAID order or that he’s been involved at all.”
Murphy, though, said he didn’t necessarily regret voting for Rubio. This outcome is one he feared, even as he voted to confirm him.
“I knew when I voted for Sen. Rubio that he was going to have very little power,” Murphy told NOTUS.
The aid freeze has drawn some skepticism from one of Rubio’s own former staffers, who told senators last week that the Chinese government will look to exploit opportunities created by the freeze.
In interviews this week, Democratic senators said they see Trump and Musk as the driving forces behind upheaval at the State Department, not Rubio. And none of the Democrats who spoke with NOTUS for this story said they regretted voting to confirm him, pointing out that he at least understands how the Senate works.
Plus, they worried, who else might be in the job right now, if not Rubio?
“We could not do better under the administration than Marco Rubio,” Sen. Tim Kaine argued. “Who do you think Donald Trump would have put in if we had voted down Marco Rubio?”
“I’m not regretting my vote for Marco Rubio,” New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told NOTUS. “I’m very frustrated about the decisions that the Trump administration is making as a whole.”
“You can’t just, in a very authoritarian way, end an agency,” Booker said.
Should Rubio be pushing back on it, then?
“I don’t want to make this about Marco Rubio,” Booker replied. “I want to make this about Donald Trump continuing in his first two weeks to do things that are extra-constitutional.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen likewise said she voted for Rubio because she felt he was qualified, “not because I would agree with him on everything.”
“But some of these, well, I guess we’ll just say moves by President Trump, executive orders, they’re clearly illegal,” she said. “We have to stand up for the Constitution and what the congressional role is.”
And Rubio “knows the role of the Senate better than anyone,” she said.
Human rights activists who have worked with Rubio in the past don’t know what to make of him at this point.
“Sen. Rubio was one of the toughest and most thoughtful critics of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Jonathan Stivers, the U.S. director of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. It is “quite shocking that they are dismantling tools that compete and counter the CCP — especially support for Taiwan,” he told NOTUS.
Stivers worked with Rubio’s staff to pass landmark Hong Kong and Xinjiang-related legislation when he was the House-side staff director on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China at the same time Rubio co-chaired the panel.
“Human rights groups, in particular, are being harmed by the assistance suspension,” he said. “The administration is losing focus and they need to get their act together quickly to counter the real threat from China.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Concerns like Stivers’ dominated the International Religious Freedom Summit, which took place in Washington this week. Many of the organizations represented rely on the paused grants from USAID or other assistance from the State Department. The guidelines for what to do now have been unclear.
“The way the decision has played out thus far has created confusion, mistrust, skepticism, has furthered the political divide,” said a consultant who works with religious freedom groups, who asked to speak anonymously to be frank.
“You can’t just give an edict and make it stop,” this consultant said.
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS. Helen Huiskes is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.