Secretary of State Marco Rubio will become the first person other than Henry Kissinger to lead the State Department and serve as national security adviser at the same time.
Multiple people have held both roles during their career, but at different times, including Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.
President Trump announced Thursday that Rubio would take over as national security adviser on an interim basis, after Mike Waltz was ousted from the post and announced as Trump’s nominee for U.N. ambassador.
Kissinger, who died in December at the age of 100, served as secretary of State and national security adviser under former President Nixon from September 1973 to November 1975. No one has held both roles since.
Kissinger was appointed by Nixon to be national security adviser in 1969 and served as secretary of State from 1973 until 1977, into the Ford administration.
The announcement of Waltz’s departure makes him the highest-ranking Trump official to be relocated so far during the second administration.
After reports that Waltz was out as national security adviser, Trump announced he would be his next nominee to be the ambassador to the United Nations. It’s a role that has remained open after Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) nomination was pulled due to the House GOP’s razor-thin majority.
The national security role adds to Rubio’s growing portfolio.
In addition to leading the State Department, he also is the acting administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the acting archivist at the National Archives and Records Administration.
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