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Four officials said Rubio fired Marocco.
Peter Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with dismantling USAID, left a White House meeting last week to return to his office at the State Department. But when he arrived, Marocco was unable to enter the building: security told him he was no longer an employee there, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Word of Marocco’s firing quickly spread through the Republican Party and MAGA ecosystem, surprising President Donald Trump loyalists who viewed the aide as part of an elite group of administration true believers. Loud voices on the right heaped blame on Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accusing him of undermining their divisive agenda.
However, Marocco’s abrupt dismissal, which has not been fully reported until now, was not an impulsive dismissal or a case of Rubio being secretive. The report was based on conversations with five people, including administration officials and allies, all of whom were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive domestic matters. Four officials said Rubio fired Marocco. They offered different explanations: one administration official said Rubio and others wanted Marocco out because of what they saw as his bulldozer-like operating style and failure to work effectively with colleagues; others pointed to fundamental disagreements between Rubio and Marocco over how to dismantle USAID. Meanwhile, Marocco’s allies saw Rubio and his team as isolating, controlling, and obstructing the president’s DOGE agenda.
A White House official said Rubio went to a senior White House aide for permission to remove Marocco after tensions reached a boiling point last week. They described Marocco's firing as "the world's first MAGA assassination from inside the White House."
The two clashed over the Department of Government Efficiency’s takedown of USAID, one of the first and most egregious examples of the second Trump administration’s more aggressive approach to federal bureaucracy. While Rubio maintains what many believe is a shaky hold on his Cabinet position, Marocco’s ouster could further weaken his standing with some of Trump’s loyalists.
A Trump administration official familiar with the situation said Rubio was unhappy with Marocco, but it wasn't ideological. Marocco didn't get along with many of his close colleagues, including people who reported to him. Rubio and others were also frustrated with the way Marocco handled his day-to-day duties, the official said.
" It wasn't just Rubio who wanted him moved. It was a group decision, including people from the White House who were getting complaints about him," the official said.
A former U.S. official in contact with people who worked with Marocco at State echoed that explanation. Marocco had largely sidelined career employees who could help him do his job and was often “blindsided,” the former official said.
Marocco has a history of ranking his colleagues, including during the first Trump administration, when he held several positions. In 2020, he spent several months at USAID, where his style and demands so annoyed staff that they drafted a 13-page memo outlining their concerns to the agency's top brass.
Some employees this time were particularly frustrated by the way he formulated memos and cables, which later influenced court cases involving USAID, the former official said.
Rubio announced in March that 83 percent of USAID programs had been cut, calling it “overdue and historic reform.” But the former Florida senator wanted to keep some remaining programs, while Marocco wanted to completely dismantle the foreign aid agency, according to three people familiar with the situation.
" This is where the fight happened. They didn't see eye to eye on killing USAID forever or keeping a piece of it," the White House official said.
The State Department official rejected the idea that Rubio was against closing the agency entirely: "Any assertion that we are seeking to keep USAID operational is categorically false."
In late March, Rubio said that USAID would be closed and the remaining programs – “elements that directly align with America’s national interests” – would be rolled into the State Department, creating a more streamlined process that would allow for oversight and accountability for every U.S. dollar spent, the official added.
But that hasn’t stopped a MAGA meltdown over what prominent leaders in the movement see as a betrayal of one of their own. Far-right influencer Laura Loomer, for example, has been posting on social media that has angered her followers against Rubio. Loomer was partly behind the multiple attacks on the National Security Council earlier this month, making the case to Trump in the Oval Office that some high-level officials were not sufficiently loyal and connected to MAGA. Marocco is seen as a die-hard loyalist, and his moves to cut USAID were among DOGE’s most well-known actions with the Trump base, according to Trump allies.
Rubio, on the other hand, has a weak position as Trump's Secretary of State, in part because of his history as a more traditional Republican who challenged Trump for the party's presidential nomination in 2016.
Since signing on to Trump's team, Rubio has tried to appeal to the MAGA right. He has appeared on various shows catering to that wing of the party, and his rhetoric and actions, particularly in support of the president's crackdown on immigrants, have surprised many observers who thought Rubio was more moderate.
In some cases, MAGA factions have cheered Rubio’s moves, such as his decision this week to eliminate what was left of a State Department-based initiative focused on combating disinformation. Many on the far right saw that effort as a way to silence conservatives, though its supporters said it was against information warfare waged by adversaries like Russia.
While Rubio has kept some USAID programs, including those related to food aid and emergency health, he has also sent signals that Marocco's departure did not mean the end of US foreign aid cuts. / Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Politico"
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