Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared eager to be on camera at a UFC fight, but was met with online mockery.
Joining President Donald Trump, 79, at a fight in Miami on Saturday night, Rubio was briefly seen making a hand gesture that was later widely ridiculed online, as high-stakes peace talks with Iran unraveled elsewhere.
The Miami-born secretary made a gesture many recognized as the “305” sign, referencing the city’s area code.
However, the potential future Republican presidential contender’s attempt to appear “cool” did not sit well with some online.
“Little Marco think he’s so cool,” one user commented on X, referring to Rubio, 54, by a nickname given to him by Trump when the two rivaled for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
“At least he’s cool at something because he’s failing in his current job of carrying out diplomacy and preventing wars around the world including iran and Ukraine,” another user chipped in.
Rubio—who was not part of the delegation negotiating with Iran led by Vice President JD Vance, alongside the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff—had made sure to let his boss know he was still hard at work as the peace talks were underway on Saturday.
Before joining the president for his favorite pastime in the evening, Rubio revealed that he terminated the lawful permanent resident status of family members linked to Masoumeh Ebtekar, an Iranian politician and spokesperson for the group who raided the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took American diplomats hostage.
“America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families—and under the Trump Administration, it never will," the secretary wrote on X.
Still, the absence of Trump’s foreign policy enabler in talks with Iran was evident, considering he played a key role earlier in the year in executing the president’s agenda in Venezuela, where the U.S. captured the country’s former president, Nicolás Maduro.
“He’s getting his vacation while Vance does some work overseas,” one user wrote, mocking Rubio’s attendance at the UFC event.
While the secretary was making hand gestures in front of cameras, Vance, 41, announced “bad news” that Iran and the United States had not reached a deal, with no clear end date to the war launched by Trump on Feb. 28.
“Glad he is enjoying a night off as this regime’s deal just completely fell apart and we’re back at war,” one user said in response, while another commented that “His daddy let him have fun tonight.”
Rubio, who is currently ranked second behind Vance in odds for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination, has, according to The New York Times, taken an “ambivalent” stance on the war with Iran.
“Many people used to think that he was legitimately cool..luckily those days are far behind us,” one user said about the potential presidential candidate.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of State for comment.
