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When U.S. President Donald Trump completed the first 100 days of his second term in office, we published a list of the drivers and passengers of his foreign policy—examining the people who were emerging as his most influential lieutenants in the early days as well as who was being sidelined.

As we approach the one-year mark, we decided to revisit the positive side of that ledger, and we found that it has largely held up, reflecting the relative lack of personnel turnover in Trump’s second administration compared to his first. There are also a few officials whose sway in the administration has grown over the past eight months.

When U.S. President Donald Trump completed the first 100 days of his second term in office, we published a list of the drivers and passengers of his foreign policy—examining the people who were emerging as his most influential lieutenants in the early days as well as who was being sidelined.

As we approach the one-year mark, we decided to revisit the positive side of that ledger, and we found that it has largely held up, reflecting the relative lack of personnel turnover in Trump’s second administration compared to his first. There are also a few officials whose sway in the administration has grown over the past eight months.

Here are the people most prominently shaping—and communicating—Trump’s foreign policy.

Billionaire real estate developer Steve Witkoff, a close friend of Trump’s, has emerged as the president’s top diplomatic deal-maker, with a portfolio ranging from the Middle East to the Russia-Ukraine war. Despite his lack of prior diplomatic experience, Witkoff has chalked up some wins, starting with securing the release in February of an American teacher who’d been held in Russia. Witkoff, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, also successfully negotiated a cease-fire in Gaza, effectively ending the conflict between Israel and Hamas that began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

But when it comes to ending the Russia-Ukraine war, Witkoff has had far less success. In August, a peace summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended without a deal. Plans for another summit in Budapest also fell apart after it became clear that Russia was not prepared to offer concessions.

Witkoff is leading a new round of diplomacy with Russia and Ukraine that began with Witkoff and Kushner working with to draft a 28-point peace plan. It’s unclear how successful this effort will be—several points have already been removed from that proposal after Ukraine and its European allies balked at the initial version, and Russia has again signaled that it is not ready to compromise.

Witkoff’s inexperience has also led to several missteps and controversies. In August, he apparently misconstrued Russia’s negotiating position on Ukraine and claimed that Russia was offering major concessions when it wasn’t, which reportedly contributed to the Alaska summit’s disappointing results. And in late November, Witkoff faced calls to step down over a leaked transcript of a conversation between Witkoff and a top aide to Putin in which Witkoff appeared to advise Russia on how to lobby Trump.—Sam Skove

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During the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, it often appeared that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been sidelined—particularly as Witkoff was repeatedly tapped to spearhead talks on an array of major issues, assuming a role generally played by the top U.S. diplomat. But Rubio now ranks among the most influential members of the administration, and it’s clear that Trump trusts him. In early December, the president said that Rubio may go down as the “greatest secretary of state” in U.S. history.

On top of serving as secretary of state, Rubio is also the national security advisor—and he’s the first person to hold both roles simultaneously since Henry Kissinger. Rubio is also the acting archivist of the United States, and from February to late August, he served as the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development while he oversaw the dismantling of that agency.

Beyond Trump’s words of praise and the multiple titles under his belt, Rubio’s clout in the administration has also been apparent in the ongoing U.S. military operation in Latin America. The series of strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the region, which began in early September and have killed more than 80 people so far, is widely seen as part of a broader effort to foment regime change in Venezuela—and Rubio is thought to be the driving force behind this effort.

Rubio’s influence has also been evident in the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, where he seems to be acting as a more Russia-skeptical counterbalance to Witkoff and Trump, who tend to be more trusting of Moscow’s intentions. For instance, in October, after a phone call between Trump and Putin, the U.S. president tasked Rubio with working out the details of a future summit with Putin in Budapest, Hungary; however, after Rubio spoke with his Russian counterpart, the planned summit was

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