Rubio is now a devoted and staunch supporter of Trump and could possibly become his top diplomat. But he was one of Trump’s biggest critics when he unsuccessfully ran against him in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
At the time, the Florida lawmaker compared the then-reality TV personality to a “third-world strongman” and warned that “for years to come, there are many people on the right, in the media, and voters at large, that are going to be having to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump because this is not going to end well, one way or the other.”
Rubio also said: “Donald Trump, a con artist, will never get control of this party.”
And, “We cannot allow a con artist to get access to the nuclear codes of the United States of America.”
Rubio back then also joked about the size of Trump’s hands (hinting about the size of his rival’s penis), prompting Trump during the primary debate to guarantee there’s “no problem” down there.
Trump gave a good as he got, though, nicknaming Rubio as “little Marco” and calling him a “lightweight” who “I wouldn’t hire to run one of my smaller companies – a highly overrated politician!”
Rubio, however, later became one of Trump’s biggest allies and was even reportedly in the mix to become his running mate.
That role eventually went to JD Vance.