Secretary of State Marco Rubio poked fun at his unprecedented number of important and high profile positions within President Donald Trump’s administration.
Beyond running the entire State Department, the former senator was most recently appointed as acting national security adviser. Mike Waltz vacated the post after being reassigned as nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations following a scandal.
He’s been appointed by Trump as the acting head of USAID and the acting national archivist topping his list of powerful jobs.
Rubio, speaking at the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute Gala on Wednesday evening, listed out all of his jobs.
He poked fun about how he was single-handedly helping improve efficiency within the federal government.
‘When I joined the administration, early on they said, you know, one of the initiatives we are pursuing is to increase efficiency in government,’ Rubio said in his remarks. ‘In essence they want to be able to do more while, you know, spending less.’
‘And for example, they said, one of the things we want you to look at is consolidation. Can you take, for example, what today are four jobs and give them all to one person? And I said, that sounds like a great idea, let’s do that across the government,’ Rubio recalled.
‘Little did I know they just meant me,’ he concluded in hitting the punch line.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio joked on Wednesday evening about helping save the U.S. government money and increasing efficiency by holding four position in President Donald Trump’s team
Rubio is Secretary of State, Acting National Security Advisor, Acting Archivist of the National Archives and acting Director of USAID
Beyond leading the State Department and acting as NSA, Rubio is also the Acting Archivist of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and acting Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
He got the NSA job after Waltz was ousted following a scandal where he seems to mistakenly add a journalist to a group chat discussing with other Cabinet officials attack plans on a Houthi target earlier this year.
Waltz is now nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a position that some say is a demotion but Trump says he would prefer over NSA.
Rubio jabbed on Wednesday night that he was gunning for a fifth position – U.S. Surgeon General.
‘It’s always flattering to receive an award and be recognized,’ he said before listing positions he has or is holding.
‘You were Speaker, you were a member of the Senate, you were the chairman of this – you’re now secretary of state, and National Security Adviser, and the acting archivist, and the acting USAID director,’ he said to laughs.
‘And the surgeon general, no I’m kidding, I’m not that,’ Rubio added, before admitting: ‘I wanted it, I wanted it, you get a uniform. Did you know you get a uniform if you’re the Surgeon General?’
Rubio took over as NSA after Mike Waltz (pictured) was booted from the position as reassigned to nominee for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
‘I wanted it, but they’d given it away. You know what’d be good? Library of Congress, that’d be a good job.’
Trump this week nominated Casey Means to be Surgeon General after he pulled his pick Janette Nesheiwat.
Nesheiwat’s credentials came into question last month after CBS News reported she graduated from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine rather than the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.
Means is a physician and chronic disease entrepreneur with close ties to the Make America Healthy Again (MAGA) movement.
