{"id":43526,"date":"2026-08-14T04:15:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43526"},"modified":"2026-08-14T04:15:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T23:15:53","slug":"rubio-realizing-memes-become-a-white-house-birthday-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=43526","title":{"rendered":"&quot;Rubio Realizing&quot; memes become a White House birthday gift"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/cIIkktH-_pgS7d4Q87UcP13nfHA=\/2026\/08\/13\/1786659584713.jpeg\"> <\/p>\n<div>Photo: Marc Caputo\/Axios<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/05\/20\/rubio-cuba-speech-independence-day\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Rubio<\/a> has three official Trump administration jobs and a fourth unofficial title: Viral meme star.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He&#8217;s been featured in countless &#8220;Rubio Realizing&#8221; images doctored to capture his grim reaction to being &#8220;assigned&#8221; more jobs, depending on the news of the day or the crisis du jour in the White House.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> For his 55th birthday on May 28, White House staffers and President Trump gifted Rubio with a gold-framed collage of their 68 favorite &#8220;Rubio Realizing&#8221; memes.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>A photo of the gift went viral Wednesday when this Axios reporter <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarcACaputo\/status\/2087694087482704381\" target=\"_blank\">posted <\/a>it on X.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> For the past 18 months, Rubio memes have featured him as everything from a Kiss band member to a samurai to a &#8220;Bachelorette&#8221; contestant in homage to his roles as secretary of state, national security adviser and chair of the U.S. bid for the World Expo in 2035.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The memes are based on a photo from one of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/02\/28\/trump-zelensky-ukraine-meeting-minerals-deal\" target=\"_blank\">awkward moments<\/a> in the Trump White House \u2014 on Feb. 28, 2025, when the president and Vice President Vance excoriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the war with Russia.<\/li>\n<li>As the two U.S. leaders savaged Zelensky, Rubio sat ramrod straight on an Oval Office couch without engaging.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The big picture<\/strong>: In today&#8217;s social media-infused politics, internet virality is a priceless commodity, and all the memes have boosted Rubio&#8217;s popularity with voters, according to Sarah Longwell, publisher of the Bulwark.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s one of the first times a politician has been memed into more positive territory,&#8221; Longwell, a critic of the administration who regularly holds voter focus groups, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DY2RmeRvqIi\/?igsh=MXIycW1oOThpbjl6OQ%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> recently on the &#8220;Press Box&#8221; podcast.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The idea that Marco Rubio is the adult in the room sort of comes from this idea that you give him every job,&#8221; she said. <\/li>\n<li>&#8220;More and more, what you&#8217;re seeing from voters is the idea that he seems he knows what he&#8217;s doing. He seems like a serious person. He seems like a grownup.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines<\/strong>: Rubio has said he has no plans to run for president in 2028 and that he&#8217;ll endorse Vance if the VP runs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Trump wants Vance to pick Rubio as a running mate, but the two haven&#8217;t seriously discussed the presidential race, sources tell Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>At one point,<\/strong> Trump gave Rubio the job as national archivist and administrator of USAID. Both of those temporary appointments expired.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In May, Rubio <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarcACaputo\/status\/1920280516986626559\" target=\"_blank\">joked <\/a>during a speech about wanting more jobs, including surgeon general.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I wanted it. You get a uniform,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Library of Congress \u2014 that would be a good job.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Rubio said earlier this month during <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RapidResponse47\/status\/2083731201529962893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2083731201529962893%7Ctwgr%5Ea46344dfb8f2dc8a2aca54142fd95a5d6c1af2bb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fmarco-rubio-viral-meme_n_6a705e61e4b03026f4f045b2\" target=\"_blank\">an interview<\/a> on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;My View with Lara Trump&#8221; that when the original, meme-inspiring photo of him first came out, he &#8220;hated&#8221; it. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;What happened is in that couch, if you don&#8217;t have a pillow behind your back, you kind of sink,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So I looked at the pictures, I was like, this is terrible.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;&#8230; And then it turned into this other thing, and it was fine and it&#8217;s funny,&#8221; Rubio added. &#8220;I don&#8217;t really follow it very closely. But people have shown me pictures out there.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Marc Caputo\/Axios Marco Rubio has three official Trump administration jobs and a fourth unofficial title: Viral meme star. He&#8217;s been featured in countless &#8220;Rubio Realizing&#8221; images doctored to capture his grim reaction to being &#8220;assigned&#8221; more jobs, depending on the news of the day or the crisis du jour in the White House. Why&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/cIIkktH-_pgS7d4Q87UcP13nfHA=\/2026\/08\/13\/1786659584713.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}