The Global Story: The world according to Marco Rubio
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As a Florida senator, Marco Rubio seemed to hold an opposing world view to Donald Trump; on Russia-Ukraine, on China, on USAID, and more. He notably called Trump a “con man”, and Trump in turn dubbed him, “little Marco”.
And yet now, as US Secretary of State, Rubio has made himself indispensable to the president on foreign affairs, bringing his own background to play in policy on Venezuela and Cuba, and shaping the US’ approach to further interventions abroad. Trump has even indicated that he wants Rubio to run on a joint ticket with JD Vance for the next US presidency.
How has Rubio tailored himself to Trump’s world view? And what difference would he bring as a potential presidential candidate? Tom Bateman, the BBC’s State Department correspondent, regularly travels with Rubio, and he joins Asma on today’s show.
The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | With American politics, everything seems to be changing by the second. |
| 0:11.9 | Yeah, sometimes the news does a full 180 while we're recording the podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | It can be a difficult job, but we stay up to date on your behalf. |
| 0:19.9 | Make sense of what's happening in the |
| 0:21.4 | US with new podcast episodes throughout the week. America's. Listen on BBC Sound. Hey there, this is |
| 0:28.9 | Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. And I'm Tristan Redmond in London. And we're the host of the Global |
| 0:34.0 | Story podcast. We're bringing you our best episode from this week. |
| 0:38.3 | And for those of you all that might be new to our show, |
| 0:41.0 | we hear at The Global Story dive deep every weekday |
| 0:44.8 | on one big story that looks at where the world and America meet. |
| 0:49.2 | Every one of our episodes is about the interplay |
| 0:51.8 | between the United States and the rest of the planet. |
| 0:54.6 | How Trump's presidency is shaping the world and how China is rising to challenge the United |
| 1:00.1 | States. |
| 1:00.7 | That's right. And how the rest of the world is struggling to find its place around the superpower |
| 1:05.7 | nations. To hear more, you can find us every weekday by searching for The Global Story wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:12.6 | Now, on to today's show. |
| 1:15.4 | Our foreign policy is one that's solely focused on the national interest of the United States of America, on the defense of our country, both its military defense and our security, but also our economic security and the vibrancy of our economy, our sovereignty, |
| 1:31.7 | and our future. |
| 1:33.0 | Marco Rubio was once a fierce critic of Donald Trump. |
| 1:37.1 | But now he's the loyal Secretary of State, the face of American diplomacy, and even a |
... |
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