Social media users had a field day dissecting Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s miserable expression as he watched President Donald Trump’s Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.
“If Marco Rubio wants to save what’s left of his soul and his honor, he’d resign immediately,” one X user wrote, while another quipped, “Marco Rubio regretting he took the job.”
As footage of the heated exchange between Trump and Zelenskyy spread online, Rubio’s silent discomfort turned into meme gold. Slate’s politics editor Jim Newell sarcastically checked in on the former Florida senator, asking, “How we doin’ bud?”—a post that sparked a flood of memes portraying Rubio as trapped in a job he desperately wants to escape.
From ‘coward’ to ‘severance meme material’
Pod Save America host Jon Favreau likened Rubio’s plight to the Apple TV+ show Severance, where employees undergo a painful mental split between work and personal life. Emmy-winning Ted Lasso editor A.J. Catoline went further, telling Rubio to “go lick Putin’s boot” while sharing his own Severance meme.
Beyond the mockery, some users took a more serious tone, pointing out how Rubio’s grim demeanor reflected his inner turmoil. “Marco Rubio looks absolutely disgusted. He knows deep down Zelenskyy is the one we should be defending, but he sold his soul to MAGA,” one X user posted. Another added, “You literally could do a daily picture of Marco Rubio swimming in the misery of knowing he gave away a long-term Senate job only to get none of the prestige of being SoS and all the responsibility for letting kids and Ukraine die.”
Rubio bites his tongue, praises Trump anyway
Despite his apparent discomfort, Rubio played the loyal soldier after the meeting. In a post on X, he attempted to spin the chaotic encounter as a win for Trump.
“Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!,” he wrote.
Whether America—or even Rubio himself—believes that is another story.
