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The Trump administration claims the conflict in Iran has degraded the Islamic republic’s capacity to wage war. It has also damaged the political brands of several top administration officials.

Vice President J.D. Vance, who used to laud Donald Trump for not starting new wars, supports this one in public despite reportedly doubting it in private. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appears to have lied about a dead U.S. soldier’s father, gleefully cheers on Trump pronouncements that could amount to war crimes, and seems to be getting set up as the fall guy if the war ends badly. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, another longtime dove who may also be at risk of losing her job, got raked over the coals by members of Congress and onetime allies for backing the president’s dubious claim that Iran presented an imminent threat. Energy Secretary Chris Wright sent oil markets reeling after he falsely claimed on X that U.S. Navy ships had escorted a tanker through the bottlenecked Strait of Hormuz. (A department spokesperson blamed staff for the erroneous post, which was quickly deleted.) And of course the president himself has caught flak from some prominent MAGA influencers as his approval ratings tumble.

But there is one prominent member of the Trump administration whose stock has been rising: Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio, Trump’s only second-term cabinet nominee to earn unanimous Senate approval and America’s first Latino secretary of state, has been deeply involved with some of the administration’s biggest initiatives, from freezing foreign aid to negotiations over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Besides helming the State Department, the secretary has temporarily served as interim national security adviser, acting USAID administrator, and acting head of the National Archives. (All that hat-wearing has yielded a meme: A photo of a glum-looking Rubio photoshopped to match open roles he might hypothetically occupy, from president of Venezuela to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s husband.)

Trump, who kneecapped the then–Florida senator as “little Marco” when they were rivals for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has also warmed to him. After bragging during his State of the Union address about the U.S. raid that captured Venezuela’s leader and his efforts to negotiate peace deals around the world, Trump shared some of the credit with Rubio. “People like you!” the president exclaimed, sounding almost........

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