Could Sec of State Rubio Be Carrying Too Many Hats?….

Secretary of State and National Security Advisor ….

It’s geography does NOT mix….

The State job requires travel and diplomacy….

The Security Advisor requires proximity to the White House and Intelligence Community….

One is Policy…

The other is Information….

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s new assignment as President Trump’s interim national security adviser brings him deeper into an inner circle dominated by “America First” loyalists.

But that may not mean more clout on policy decisions.

“It doesn’t signal greater influence over policy,” said Kori Schake, a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, of Rubio’s dual roles. “Secretary Rubio appears only to amplify the President’s inclinations, not to influence them.”

Rubio’s supporters, including cautious Democrats, say he can still help mitigate what they view as the president’s worst impulses. But critics say he has given up the foreign policy principles he developed over 16 years in the Senate, in exchange for Trump’s temporary favor.

“In a normal administration, Republican or Democrat — and this is not normal — the double-hatting is impossible,” said Aaron David Miller, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has advised secretaries of state in Republican and Democratic administrations….

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But Trump’s trust in Rubio to hold both positions caps a remarkable turn in the relationship between the former rivals, however long it lasts….

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He’s also overseeing a massive scale-down at the State Department and USAID.

But the NSA role will place new demands on his time, as the main person tasked with consulting and getting consensus from national security agency heads — spanning intelligence, defense, economics, law enforcement, immigration, to name a few.

Between 1973 and 1975, Henry Kissinger served as both national security adviser and secretary of State for both the Nixon and Ford administrations, but others who have held the role said it’s not a fair comparison….

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Miller said it may not matter who is in the role if they aren’t providing candid advice to the president.

“I would ask the question, does it matter that Mike Waltz resigned? Would it matter if Marco Rubio left? The answer is no, because the advisers are not doing what they need to do, which is to present, even when it risks annoying a president, or disappointment, critiques of a policy,” he said.

“Loyalty is critically important in any administration, but not blindly.”

More….

image…AP News