Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on as he testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Many of Donald Trump's most outspoken allies were his harshest critics, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and in a recent podcast appearance, conservative political commentator Ana Navarro explained why the president has held such sway over his past enemies.
Once a GOP political operative supporting the likes of John McCain and Jeb Bush, Navarro has emerged as a strident conservative critic of Trump ever since his first campaign for president. On Thursday, she was a guest on the latest episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, where she dug into the "complete 180s" she has seen her conservative acquaintances, like Rubio, do over the course of Trump's political career.
“I have seen person after person who I personally knew and admired and thought were different, do complete 180s,” Navarro told co-host Joanna Coles. “I have known Marco Rubio since he was very young. We’re the same age. We grew up in Republican politics in South Florida. I’ve known Pam Bondi for decades, since she was attorney general of the state of Florida.”
She also singled out Graham, calling him "a completely different person than he was." The reason for each and every one of these changes, she said, was to do with power, and Trump's ability to bring them closer to it.
“So many people in Congress, so many people that are serving in this administration, so many people that I see on TV [are] defending the indefensible and the unjustifiable because it means they have access to power,” Navarro explained. “Let’s be clear, the trappings of power are very attractive. It’s great to be invited to the White House. It’s great to be able to go to the Christmas parties. It’s great to be able to ride on Air Force One and be able to call up the White House and talk to whomever you want. All of those things are heady things. I know; I’ve done them.”
She added later: "But the question is: are you willing to compromise every principle you supposedly stood for, every conviction you supposedly had, every belief you supposedly held in order to stay in that circle of power?"
On Rubio, Navarro specifically noted that he has been able to justify "selling his soul" to Trump because of the things he has accomplished as Secretary of State, including one of his biggest long-term goals, the removal of Nicolás Maduro from power in Venezuela.
Prior to Trump becoming president the first time around, Rubio ran against him in the 2016 GOP primary, where he called his opponent a "con artist" and warned that voting for him was a "trap." Graham, meanwhile, made the oft-quoted prediction that, "If we nominate Trump [in 2016], we will get destroyed [...] and we will deserve it."