In the midst of the 2016 GOP primary season, few could have predicted that Sen. Marco Rubio would emerge nearly three years later as one of the strongest champions of Donald Trump’s immigration policies, as well as the president’s hard-ball government-shutdown tactics.
But there was the Florida senator on Twitter over the weekend, coming to the president’s defense and unabashedly backing his latest immigration compromise proposal. Rubio also joined Trump in characterizing Democrats as obstructionists who are refusing the deal simply because it would give the president a win.
“POTUS offers to support two bills sponsored by Dems in exchange for Border Security & the instant reaction from Dem leaders is No,” Rubio tweeted Saturday. “Because denying him a win on border matters more to them than paying fed workers or 3 yrs of certainty for TPS & DACA recipients.”
Demeaned by Trump as “Little Marco” while contending for the presidential nomination, Florida’s 47-year-old senior senator is the son of Cuban immigrants whose own grandfather was once ordered to leave the U.S., a decision that was later reversed. In one of the 2016 GOP debates, Rubio, viewed back then as the establishment’s last best hope to bring down Trump, mocked the billionaire’s repeated claim that he alone was responsible for elevating the immigration issue and making it a central piece of the campaign.
“You’re the only person on this stage that has ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally,” Rubio said.
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05.04.2025