Marco Rubio Is the Reason I Gave up on Political Purity Tests – PJ Media

April 7, 2026

Top O’ the Briefing

Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Orzfrego had recently been overcome with the urge to drop the word “chanticleer” into at least one conversation a day.

Today, we’re doing a bit of a retrospective discussion rather than a news cycle thing. I was actually going to cover this in a column a few weeks ago, but March was a bit of a blur, and several things were piled up on the back burner.

We have discussed the heavy hitters in President Trump’s current administration several times, contrasting them with the chaotic backstabbing he had to deal with in his first term. There are a lot of faithful soldiers in the 47 crew, but the big three are Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

There was a time when I was pretty exacting about purity tests for other conservative activists and, to a lesser extent, Republican politicians. Marco Rubio long ago made me abandon them completely for politicians. President Trump reinforced that.

Sarah put together a retrospective of Rubio’s accomplishments as part of the Trump 47 administration, and we’ll use her intro to that as a jumping-off point:

I haven’t been shy about the fact that I’ve been a Marco Rubio fan from day one, even before he was in the Senate. When he ran for president in 2016, he became the only candidate I’d ever donated to, and in 2024, when Donald Trump chose him to be his secretary of State, I was new here at PJ Media, but I had the honor of breaking that news, and I was so proud.

There’s no denying that Rubio’s star has risen over the last year. I read comments and hear from people all the time who seem quite surprised that he’s so intelligent and competent, and I just smile because I’ve known that all along. With that in mind, I’ve been trying to put together a “greatest hits” list of Rubio’s biggest moments and accomplishments from the first year (or 14 months) of Trump’s second term.

And I do mean greatest hits because creating a definitive list of everything he’s done is nearly impossible. He’s that good.

It’s a good list; trust me.

I’ve also been a Rubio fan from the early days of his national trajectory. He was the first big national success story for the Tea Party movement. He fit the Tea Party profile, and we all got behind him in the primary when he was taking on then-Republican and then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Rubio was also the subject of one of the first serious things I wrote for Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Journalism” back in the day.

After Rubio got talked into signing on to the infamous “Gang of Eight” bipartisan (ugh) immigration legislation in 2013, a lot of conservatives wrote him off. I mostly blamed that on him being still relatively new to the Senate and getting very bad advice from John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

Rubio later admitted that it was a mistake and was solid on most things for the rest of his time in the Senate. His 2016 run for the GOP presidential nomination wasn’t the most graceful, but I give him a pass on that, too. A lot of candidates wilted in the glare of sharing a stage with the Donald Trump juggernaut in that election.

When President Trump tapped Rubio for State after the 2024 election, there were still a lot of conservatives holding a grudge more than a decade later. I just knew that he was right for the job, and he hasn’t disappointed. I’m very glad that we didn’t run him out of the party back in 2013.

I often tell people that I’m not looking for life partnerships with politicians I support. I need someone who is adequately representing my interests in government, no matter what office he or she holds. I’m not looking for a prom date. Heck, I was skeptical about all things President Trump in January 2017; now I’d crawl across salted broken glass to vote for him if he were running for office again.

Yeah, I’m glad I’m not as rigid as I once was; I wouldn’t be having nearly this much fun.

Contributions to the Mailbag of Magnificence can be sent to [email protected]

Click the button to get the Morning Briefing emailed to you every weekday. Have your coffee with me, people. It’s free, and it supports conservative media!

The Mailbag of Magnificence

We will begin with this note from Bill:

I always drop in for the Morning Briefing, because I enjoy what you’re writing. And it’s good to see the Mailbag back. Anyway, I had a moment to write (having been laid off from my job of 44 years on Tuesday) and thought I would pass you a thought that I had a while back for the next time that you are writing about Chicago. People have said that unions are antibodies against bad management, and I tend to agree with that. However, the Chicago Teachers Union is an auto-immune disease. Have fun!

Sorry to hear about the layoff, Bill. I hope you can end up making some lemonade out of those lemons. Teachers’ unions are generally evil, and I know that Chicago’s is among the worst. I don’t have any problems with private sector unions. Like most conservatives, however, I think that the public sector union societal cancers like the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Service Employees International Union have got to go. Love the auto-immune disease line!

We can wrap up with this from Dan H:

Hi.

I’ve been reading your column for a couple of years now and always find it funny and insightful, so keep up the good work.

Thank you, Dan — I always enjoy hearing from people who have been hanging around here for a while. That’s what inspires me to try and keep up the good work!

OK, everyone, I hope you’re enjoying this new approach to the Mailbag. Keep those emails coming!

Everything Isn’t Awful

Same.

He just wanted a cookie.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/F8V4zOwcMT

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) April 6, 2026

The Kruiser Kabana

Kabana Gallery

Harbour at Port-en-Bessin at High Tide #artbots #seurat pic.twitter.com/k1vJHxAORX

— Georges Seurat (@artistseurat) April 6, 2026

Kabana Comedy/Tunes

POTUS Press Today

In-Town Pool
TV Corr & Crew: ABC
Secondary TV Corr: OAN
Photos: AP, AFP, NYT, Reuters, Getty
Print: HuffPost
Secondary Print: Axios
Radio: BBC
New Media: AMAC News Line

EDT:
9:00 AM In-Town Pool Call Time

8:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in Executive Time
The White House
Closed Press

4:00 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Policy Meeting
Oval Office
Closed Press

7:00 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Dinner with the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of India
The White House
Closed Press