Rubio takes flak for Trump admin’s Russia stance, a sharp contrast from his hawkish history

MIAMI — President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and sanctions to Russia as leverage to negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine may be a welcome pivot that draws some attention away from the administration’s recent support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It may also move the focus away from the flak that Secretary of State Marco Rubio — known for his hard-line policies against Russia and its backing of communist and socialist countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — has been taking as the country’s top diplomat. 

After Trump and Vice President JD Vance excoriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a heated televised exchange from the Oval Office, and following Trump’s assertions that Ukraine — not Russia — started the war, the Cuban American secretary of state has been criticized by Americans who condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as well as Russia’s longstanding involvement with some Latin American countries. 

One letter to the editor in the Miami Herald, his hometown newspaper, questioned how Rubio can “sleep at night” now that he’s “anxious to partner with Russia, which recently sent oil to Havana to keep that socialist state’s engine running.” Another letter lambasted Rubio for “sitting in the Oval Office as his tangerine-tinted Caudillo (strongman) paid tribute to and openly embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fidel Castro once did the same with Nikita Kruschev in 1961.”

Asked for comment, the State Department referred NBC News to recent remarks Rubio made on ABC News, Fox News and CNN, in which he’s insisted that Trump’s goal is to get Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace agreement and an end to a war that has gone on for three years and cost thousands of civilian lives. 

“All the president is trying to do here is figure out if there’s a path towards peace. We have to engage both sides, the Russians and the Ukrainians. And we asked the Ukrainians not to sabotage it,” Rubio told Fox News following Trump’s exchange with Zelensky at the White House. 

The role of secretaries of state is to carry out their president’s foreign policy agenda. But the White House’s Russia policy stands in contrast to Rubio’s. A foreign policy hawk who served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence, Rubio has been a staunch opponent of the Kremlin and a defender of Ukraine, and has often criticized Russia for its involvement with other countries. 

After Russian warships visited Cuba last summer, then Sen. Rubio, along with fellow Florida Sen. Rick Scott, introduced a resolution condemning Cuba’s government, stating that “the world is bearing witness to the multiple ways the Castro/Díaz-Canel regime has served as a puppet for Communist China, Iran, and most recently Russia.”

Like Rubio, many Cubans as well as exiles from Venezuela and Nicaragua see Russia not only as an aggressor against Ukraine, but as a regime with strong alliances to the governments they fled. 

For Anamely Ramos, a well-known Chicago-based activist and art historian who came from Cuba three years ago, the Trump administration’s recent overtures toward Russia worry her.

She said it’s a delicate topic for many Cubans because they don’t have all the information yet, but it’s worse to “remain silent.”

“My role, as a Cuban and defender of human rights is to insist on certain demands with Cuba policy in mind, regardless of which party is in power,” said Ramos. “The softening with Russia affects us and, as activists, we cannot take this out of our sight, not even for a second.”

After the 1959 revolution, Cuba became a major ally of the Soviet Union and depended on them for subsidies and military support. The 1962 Cuban missile crisis — when the Soviet Union placed missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. soil — brought the two superpowers to the brink of nuclear conflict. Russia has continued aiding Cuba, most recently with oil shipments as the island is mired in economic crisis, and it’s also helped the leftist authoritarian governments of Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Some pro-democracy activists in the U.S. don’t take issue with the administration’s Russia policy.

“Trump is trying to end a war where there has been great loss of life on both sides,” said Ernesto Ackerman, president of the group Independent Venezuelan-American Citizens, who is a Trump supporter. “What he wants is to achieve peace between these two countries,” he said.

Others wanted to make clear they supported Rubio, but were worried about the  government’s recent overtures toward Russia.  

Carolina Barrero, who moves between Madrid, Washington, D.C., Miami and New York as the director of the organization Ciudadanía y Libertad (Citizenship and Freedom), said for Cubans like her it’s an “honor” to have Marco Rubio serve as secretary of state and they want him in that role. But she said she’s  “concerned” about the strengthening alliance between the U.S. and Russia.

“Most Cubans are conscious of who Vladimir Putin is and the threat he represents because of the history we have had,” Barrero said.

The Trump administration has toughened its policies toward various Latin American countries, too: it revoked a license that allowed Chevron to pump oil in Venezuela, returned Cuba to the state sponsors of terrorism list, slapped tariffs on Mexico and threatened to “take back” the Panama Canal.

On the other hand, the administration ceased offensive cyber operations against Russia and ended efforts to seize assets of Russian oligarchs. 

“It looks a little suspicious and the secretary of state has a hard time explaining why,” Gamarra said.  

If Rubio has presidential aspirations, he needs to make the best of the current situation, according to Eduardo Gamarra, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University. 

“Imagine a situation where Rubio is able to preside over a peace process. That almost guarantees Rubio a huge political bump,” he said.