Senator Marco Rubio is expected to be Donald Trump's future secretary of state.
The 53-year-old Florida Republican's career has prepared him for the position of America's top diplomat and Mr Rubio is reportedly in discussions with the Trump transition team concerning the senior role, but the agreement has not yet been formalised, according to a number of US media outlets.
The senator is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He is seen as a foreign policy “hawk” – someone who adopts tough stances, including against China and Iran.
But Mr Rubio and President-elect Trump haven’t always had the best relationship.
During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Mr Rubio and Mr Trump faced off against one another and became bitter rivals.
They disagreed on a number of topics, most notably immigration, and one argument resulted in several insults. Mr Rubio made fun of Trump's “small hands” and Mr Trump called the senator “little Marco”.
Fast forward to this year though, and prior to the 2024 election, Mr Rubio campaigned for and supported his old opponent. He was also considered for the position of Mr Trump's running mate, which finally went to JD Vance.
Read on for more about their mutual mockery and how they recovered their relationship.
How it began – all the insults
Donald Trump mocked Marco Rubio for his love of water
Since Mr Rubio stopped for a sip of water during his 2013 State of the Union rebuttal speech on national television, many have made fun of him.
Mr Trump gave a long impression of Mr Rubio struggling to breathe during his remarks in Texas in 2016.
"It's Rubio!" he said as he threw a water bottle and sprayed the crowd with it.
Marco Rubio has a go at Donald Trump for his spelling
Mr Trump was made fun of by Mr Rubio for a string of misspelt tweets that he eventually removed.
He spelt the words "choker", "lightweight" and "honour" incorrectly. Mr Rubio claimed that the two explanations for the tweets were either "he must have hired a foreign worker to do his own tweets" or "that's how they spell at the Wharton School of Business", which is at the University of Pennsylvania, where Mr Trump was a student.
Donald Trump derides Marco Rubio for applying makeup
Mr Trump made fun of Mr Rubio and claimed he put makeup on “with a trowel” backstage at one of their 2016 debates.
It didn’t take long for Mr Rubio to hit back. He claimed to have witnessed Mr Trump putting on cosmetics backstage as well because he needed to hide a “sweat moustache”.
Marco Rubio said Donald Trump wet his trousers
According to Mr Rubio, Mr Trump asked for a full-length mirror backstage at the debate “to make sure his pants weren't wet”.
Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. The problem is, he is a choker, and once a choker, always a choker! Mr. Meltdown.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2016
“He called me Mr Meltdown. Let me tell you something, last night in the debate, during one of the breaks – two of the breaks – he went backstage, he was having a meltdown,” said Mr Rubio.
How they made up
Mr Rubio was knocked out of the primaries in 2016 and he eventually backed Mr Trump for president.
However, the two did not share the same approach to foreign policy. Mr Trump's foreign policy has centred on avoiding military action abroad, while Mr Rubio is more of a conventional interventionist who supports a forceful approach to international issues.
Mr Rubio has occasionally been prompted by this to publicly attack Mr Trump's foreign policy. In 2019, for example, he accused the then-president of “abandoning” the US military effort in Syria before it was “completely finished”.
But it appears Mr Rubio has shifted his position in recent years to align with Mr Trump.
Mr Rubio's stance on the conflict in Ukraine is one example of this change. He used social media to passionately mobilise American support for Ukraine in the early months following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
I wish I could share more,but for now I can say it’s pretty obvious to many that something is off with #Putin
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 26, 2022
He has always been a killer,but his problem now is different & significant
It would be a mistake to assume this Putin would react the same way he would have 5 years ago
But Mr Rubio, one of 15 Republican senators who voted against a military aid package for Ukraine that was approved in April, has stated in recent interviews that Ukraine should look for "a negotiated settlement" with Russia.
Another example is when Mr Rubio voted against a package that gave Israel emergency assistance, claiming that funding for US border enforcement should have been part of the agreement.
