WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday dismissed reports that he is considering leaving the Trump administration, telling The New York Times in an interview that serving President Donald Trump until the end of his term "has always been my plan."
Bloomberg News reported earlier Thursday that Rubio and his advisers were weighing whether he should step down from his posts as secretary of state and national security adviser following the Republican Party's losses in the November 3 midterm elections. The report said Rubio had discussed the possibility of leaving with White House officials, who asked him to stay, and that no decision or timeline had been set.
"I don't know where these things come from, to be honest with you," Rubio told the Times. "I love the work I'm doing. And plus I always laugh when they say he's going to leave his job. I go, 'Which one?'"
Rubio declined to discuss his political future, telling the newspaper: "I literally will not talk about 2028 anymore. I just won't do it." The Independent had reported that Rubio was planning to launch a bid for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. Rubio has previously said he would support Vice President JD Vance if he ran for president.
The White House and the State Department pushed back sharply against the reports. White House spokesperson Beni Rae Harmony called them a "fabricated hoax" based on anonymous sources, while Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs Dylan Johnson called the Bloomberg article "totally made up" and The Independent's report "completely baseless fake news."
The New York Post reported that administration insiders said Rubio had planned from the beginning to serve the entire four-year term of Trump's presidency. The speculation about his future came two days after Democrats swept both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, a result that has left the administration facing new questions about its direction in its final two years.
