U.S. Secretary of State Doug Burgum, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump take a seat in combination all the way through a Cupboard assembly within the Cupboard Room of the White Area on Aug. 26. Rubio is amongst numerous officers to have a couple of jobs within the management.
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures
When it was once Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s flip to talk all the way through President Trump’s contemporary marathon Cupboard assembly, he joked about his present employment standing.
“For me in my opinion, that is probably the most significant Hard work Day of my lifestyles, as anyone with 4 jobs,” Rubio mentioned to laughter. “It is true.”
Rubio is recently serving as secretary of state, performing nationwide safety adviser and performing archivist of the USA. Past due remaining week, he passed off his fourth task — performing director of the U.S. Company for World Building — to some other management respectable, who already had two different jobs himself.
I joked with @POTUS that I had 4 jobs. He advised me to provide one to my pal @RussVought47. So I did.
⁰Since January, we’ve stored the taxpayers tens of billions of bucks. And with a small set of core techniques moved over to the State Division, USAID is formally in shut…— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) August 29, 2025
President Trump has a trend of giving other folks in his management a couple of very large jobs. There at the moment are a minimum of a dozen management officers serving in two jobs or extra.
There may be Treasury Secretary/performing IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent; the Well being and Human Services and products deputy secretary who’s now additionally intervening time director for the Facilities for Illness Regulate and Prevention, Jim O’Neill; Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who’s now additionally the performing NASA administrator; and U.S. Industry Consultant Jamieson Greer, who is been put in command of the Place of work of Particular Suggest.
“That is no approach to run anything else and under no circumstances a approach to run our executive,” mentioned Max Stier, who leads the Partnership for Public Provider, which exists to advertise absolute best practices in executive.
Stier is beside himself with all of the double- and triple-hatting in the second one Trump management. He says that is like asking “a unmarried participant as a way to play your heart and your level guard to your basketball crew on the similar time.”
‘There may be now not sufficient time within the day’
Usually, the roles spread out when Trump fired the one that prior to now held it. After which, as an alternative of getting anyone at that company ascend to an intervening time management position, Trump selected a Senate-confirmed loyalist — ceaselessly from a fully unrelated company. Trump is totally throughout the regulation in doing this, however he’s an outlier amongst presidents for running this fashion.
“Different presidents do not generally tend to do that,” mentioned Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who tracks White Area staffing on the Brookings Establishment.
She’s performed many oral historical past interviews with officers from different administrations, all of whom mentioned how completely overwhelming their jobs had been. They usually simplest had one.
“The perception that anyone will have a couple of jobs in a White Area is solely past the faded,” mentioned Tenpas. “There may be now not sufficient time within the day.”
The White Area defends the apply, pronouncing Trump has assembled a skilled crew.
“Some officers dangle a couple of roles, which permits for higher verbal exchange and collaboration around the management,” mentioned Anna Kelly, a White Area spokesperson, in a remark to NPR. “The result of the President’s first seven months again in place of job talk to his outstanding management and the capability of his crew to execute all the American other folks’s priorities — inflation has cooled, the border is protected, our nation is robust, and the most productive is but to come back!”
The heavy-hatters
A few of the many officers with a couple of hats, 3 stand out for his or her extra-full plates.
One in all them is former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who sat at Trump’s facet all the way through his talk over with to California in past due January to survey the wildfire harm. Trump requested Grenell to supervise the federal reaction to the California fires.
Days later, Grenell flew to Venezuela to protected the discharge of six detained U.S. electorate, in his position as Trump’s particular missions envoy. Not up to two weeks later, Trump gave Grenell a 3rd task as intervening time govt director of the Kennedy Heart, the appearing arts heart in Washington, D.C.
“The entirety Ric ever touched has labored out,” Trump mentioned remaining month, praising a person who, in Trump’s first time period, additionally served in a couple of overlapping roles.
Some other standout is Rubio, who changed into performing nationwide safety adviser 4 months in the past. At this level there’s no obvious urgency to call an enduring alternative. Traditionally, there is just one different example of anyone serving as nationwide safety adviser and secretary of state concurrently. That was once Henry Kissinger within the Nixon management.
“Secretary Rubio’s position as nationwide safety adviser lets in him to raised perceive the president’s priorities and execute them throughout our overseas coverage equipment as secretary of state,” mentioned Kelly.
However the ones are each “greater than full-time jobs,” mentioned Alexander Grey, who was once leader of personnel for the Nationwide Safety Council within the first Trump management.
He mentioned Rubio is effectively navigating his twin roles of secretary of state and performing nationwide safety adviser, by way of working the Nationwide Safety Council the way in which the president desires it run, with Trump and his overseas coverage instincts taking the lead.
“Should you shouldn’t have delusions of grandeur about what the task is meant to do, if you do not suppose you’re a coverage maker, you’ll do the task very successfully, even whilst doing different issues,” mentioned Grey.
The opposite management respectable with as many roles as Rubio and Grenell is Russell Vought, the director of the Place of work of Control and Price range. He has additionally been performing director of the Client Monetary Coverage Bureau since February. This dual-role setup additionally existed in Trump’s first time period, when OMB director Mick Mulvaney served as performing director of CFPB.
It is a semi-independent watchdog company maximum Republicans have antagonistic since its inception.
“[Vought] actively desires to dismantle it,” mentioned Stier. “In order that places his hand at the tiller to ensure he can run it into the rocks. So, there, I feel it says so much about what they bring to mind our executive.”
No longer an coincidence
Vought additionally changed into performing director of USAID remaining week, with the explicit goal of remaining it down. USAID was once created by way of former President John F. Kennedy and Congress to combat poverty and illness around the globe, however the Trump White Area argues it was once losing taxpayer greenbacks.
“A large number of other folks suppose it looks as if a comedy skit the place Marco Rubio is working each company,” mentioned Richard Stern of the conservative Heritage Basis. “I in fact suppose it is a means of very sparsely striking relied on other folks able to achieve that wisdom, to then use it for the betterment of presidency potency.”
Grey, who served within the first time period, has some other idea. He believes that is simply Trump’s control taste, honed over an entire life of working the Trump Group.
“And in a circle of relatives industry just like the Trump Group, other folks put on a couple of hats,” mentioned Grey, explaining that Trump took a identical solution to his first marketing campaign and primary time period. Now, he mentioned, it is “turbocharged.”
“That is his convenience stage,” Grey mentioned. “You to find individuals who he is pleased with, who he thinks do a really perfect task and also you simply stay giving them extra accountability.”
