White House actively working to answer how Rubio will balance 2 top national security roles

By Alayna Treene, Kylie Atwood, Alex Marquardt and Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN) — Just over 24 hours after President Donald Trump announced Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be taking on yet another role as interim national security adviser, the White House is actively sorting out how Rubio will juggle it all.

The lack of answers on how Rubio will function in the role is at least partially attributable to how quickly the decision came together Thursday morning. As multiple media outlets began reporting that the president was planning to oust Michael Waltz as national security adviser and nominate him as United Nations ambassador, the Trump team had not yet decided to name Rubio as his replacement, multiple people familiar with the decision told CNN.

Now, the White House is sorting through a litany of logistical questions, those people said. Will Rubio move into Waltz’s former West Wing office, a coveted first-floor space down the hall from the Oval Office? Will he hire new staff to serve on the national security team? And how much of his State Department portfolio will he hand off to deputy Chris Landau?

And on a more existential level: Will the United States’ international standing and safety suffer if the president’s top foreign affairs adviser is also his top adviser on national security? Playing both roles could be incredibly difficult, especially for a president known for shooting from the hip on policy decisions. Henry Kissinger held both titles from 1973-1975, but current and former US officials say that today’s global challenges cannot compare with what the nation faced decades ago.

What is clear: Trump’s closest advisers believe Rubio truly will only serve in the role for a temporary period as Trump weighs a more permanent replacement. Rubio is preparing to stay in the role for up to six months, a person who spoke with him said, though that could always change based on Trump’s demands.

“The job of national security adviser is like the most important job in Washington,” said Brett McGurk, who has served on multiple national security councils, most recently as former President Joe Biden’s Middle East coordinator.

“It is totally different than the secretary of State job. Rubio really cannot do both these jobs. So right now, unless Rubio decides to delegate to his deputy Chris Landau at State, we really don’t have a national security adviser,” he added. “This is a full-time, full-time job.”

Unlike Waltz, Rubio already has buy-in from the top levers of the White House. Trump and the people he listens to most, like chief of staff Susie Wiles and Vice President JD Vance, have grown increasingly impressed with Rubio in recent months, according to four people familiar with White House dynamics.

The president revealed as much just moments before announcing Rubio’s new role. As he stood in the Rose Garden for a speech on faith Thursday morning, he joked: “When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it solved.”

The praise demonstrates the close relationship the two have developed over the course of Trump’s second term, and how much the president has come to rely on Rubio to handle the most sensitive issues of his new administration. In addition to those two roles, Trump had Rubio assume the position of national archivist and acting administrator of USAID.

But the demands on Rubio are piling up. There are only 10 days left to prepare for Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabi, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. There are drawn out ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. There are talks to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas. And there are the ongoing efforts to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Rubio would be involved in all of those issues under both jobs, but fulfilling different roles. Serving in both at the same time is next to impossible, a White House official said.

Still, Rubio appears pleased by the assignment, people close to him say, not only because it will allow him to spend more time in Washington, but it will also give him more proximity to the president. While Rubio already visited the White House on an almost daily basis, he often camped out in a secure facility in the basement in between his meetings with Trump, said a US official. The location enabled him to stay on site, close to the center of gravity.

Now, his new interim position formalizes his presence in the West Wing.

Trump’s social media announcement about the staffing shift came as a surprise not only to officials in the White House, but also throughout the State Department. The agency’s spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, was briefing in real time when the news came through. When CNN asked Bruce how long Rubio would be serving in both roles, she acknowledged it was the first time she had learned of it.

“I just heard this from you,” Bruce said.

But she added that Rubio would not have accepted the job if he didn’t think he could do it: “When we think about how is Secretary Rubio going to do this, well, it’s like how does President Trump run the United States? You have people around you. It’s about managing people.”

Some of Rubio’s senior-most staffers were having meetings when the news came in Thursday, State Department sources said. The unexpected timing of the announcement sent the department scrambling throughout the day to determine how the new structure would work in terms of logistics and responsibilities, the sources added.

Those serving under Waltz are also grappling with the uncertainty of what comes next.

Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, remained on the National Security Council on Friday despite previous thinking that he would be removed, three sources familiar with the matter said. Wong, who has not worked closely with Rubio in the past but has grown to know him in recent months, is staying on for the time being as he helps oversee the transition from Waltz to Rubio.

The deputy national security adviser is respected by congressional Republicans, including Trump ally Sen. Tom Cotton, who have made personal overtures to Trump in recent weeks in an effort to ensure Wong retains his position, congressional sources said.

Wong is among the NSC staffers who have been targeted by Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once claimed 9/11 was an inside job. She has publicly questioned his loyalty to Trump and criticized him privately as a “Never Trumper.”

However, a White House official told CNN that some staffers were concerned that more resignations and dismissals would follow Waltz’s ouster, citing the fear and uncertainty that comes with such a major shakeup.

“There’s absolutely nothing protecting anybody,” said the official, who argued continued employment is “a roll of the dice.”

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