President Trump has formally made Secretary of State Marco Rubio his national security adviser, cementing an unusual arrangement that places Rubio at the center of both American diplomacy and the White House national security operation.
President Trump recently signed a commission making Rubio’s appointment permanent, according to administration officials. Rubio had already been performing the job on an acting basis since May 2025 while continuing to serve as secretary of state.
The appointment puts Rubio in rare historical company. He is the first person since Henry Kissinger in the 1970s to simultaneously hold the positions of secretary of state and national security adviser. Kissinger served as national security adviser under President Richard Nixon before becoming secretary of state in 1973, holding both jobs for a period.
Rubio’s dual responsibilities give him an unusually broad role in shaping and coordinating foreign policy. As secretary of state, he oversees American diplomacy and the State Department. As national security adviser, he manages the National Security Council process and advises President Trump on foreign policy, intelligence and defense issues.
Rubio first took over the national security adviser job after Mike Waltz left the position in May 2025. Waltz’s departure followed controversy surrounding a Signal group chat in which senior administration officials discussed plans involving military strikes against Houthi forces in Yemen. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, had inadvertently been added to the chat.
President Trump subsequently nominated Waltz to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and named Rubio interim national security adviser.
At the time, President Trump praised Rubio’s ability to take on additional responsibilities.
“When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it solved,” President Trump said when announcing the change in May 2025.
More than a year later, the temporary arrangement has become permanent.
Rubio’s expanding portfolio has made him a highly visible figure in the administration’s foreign policy operation. Recent diplomatic activity has included negotiations and discussions involving Greenland, China, South Korea and Middle Eastern security issues.
The arrangement has also generated plenty of jokes online about just how many government jobs Rubio seems to have accumulated. Rubio himself has acknowledged the workload.
Asked about speculation that he could eventually seek the presidency in 2028, Rubio has said he is currently focused on his existing responsibilities rather than campaigning for another office.
“I don’t know what the future holds, but I have no plans at this time,” Rubio said in an interview with Colombian broadcaster RCN, according to NBC News. “I’m not a candidate for anything right now. And I’m 100 percent focused on my job, and I have to be because I have two jobs.”
The permanent appointment removes the “acting” designation from a national security arrangement that has already been functioning for more than a year.
Rubio now formally occupies two of the most influential foreign policy positions in the federal government, giving President Trump a single senior adviser overseeing both the State Department’s diplomatic apparatus and the White House’s national security coordination process.
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