Secretary of State Marco Rubio is being ridiculed mercilessly online after being spotted wearing oversized shoes on Capitol Hill.
The image of him wearing much too big for him dress shoes to brief lawmakers started circulating after the Wall Street Journal reported this week that President Donald Trump was gifting leather oxfords to members of his Cabinet, lawmakers, and staffers.
Trump, 79, apparently has a fondness for $145 Florsheim shoes and has been buying them for those around him after guessing their shoe sizes. As one White House official told the Journal, “everybody’s afraid not to wear them.”
Observers were quick to take notice that the top diplomat’s shoes were definitely not the right fit during his appearance on the hill in early January.
Trump critic Miles Taylor, who served in the president’s administration before turning on him, was among those to point out Rubio’s oversized footwear online.
“Yesterday morning: ‘As such, wearing [Trump’s shoes] becomes a private act of submission (particularly if he’s guessed your size wrong, and you’re forced to walk around with clown shoes).’ Photo of Marco Rubio surfaces yesterday afternoon,” he wrote with a zoomed-in photo of the secretary of state’s shoes.
“Nothing is more emblematic of GOP cowardice than Marco Rubio and others wearing shoes way too big because they don’t want to upset the mad king,” wrote another X user.
“OMG....Marco Rubio is wearing oversized shoes dear leader bought him. This is a different level of sycophancy,” wrote another.
“Marco Rubio clomping around in shoes two sizes too large that Trump bought for him is a perfect demonstration of the cult that is MAGA. Ridiculous,” wrote a third person.
“hmm,” wrote menswear writer Derek Guy with a close-up of Rubio’s shoes posted on X.
On several occasions, Vice President JD Vance shared the story of how the president liked to guess officials’ shoe sizes.
“Today, I’m in the Oval Office with the President of the United States and our great Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and we’re talking about something really, really important,” Vance recalled in December. “And the president kind of holds up his hand and says, ‘No, hold on a second. There’s something much more important: shoes.’”
“He peers over the resolute desk, and he says, ‘Marco, JD, you guys have shitty shoes. We got to get you better shoes,’” Vance continued.
The vice president proceeded to recount how the president got a catalog, went through it, and asked them for their shoe sizes. He claimed Rubio said 11.5 while he’s a size 13. Vance went on to say a third politician was in the room, but he would not name him as the person was a size seven.
“The president, he kind of leans back in his chair, and he says, ‘You know you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size,’” Vance recalled.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, apart from Vance and Rubio, the president has also gifted shoes to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, as well as Fox News host Sean Hannity and Senator Lindsey Graham.
Others who were gifted shoes include Deputy White House Chief of Staff James Blair and speechwriter Ross Worthington.
This is not the first time Rubio’s footwear has come into focus. The top Trump official’s “high-heled booties” once came under fire back when he was running for president in 2016.
In the end, Rubio’s campaign told POLITICO the boots were in fact also a pair of Florsheims. A review of the website at the time showed similar such boots retailed for just over $100.
