"Rubio Realizing" memes become a White House birthday gift

Marco Rubio has three official Trump administration jobs and a fourth unofficial title: Viral meme star.

• He's been featured in countless "Rubio Realizing" images doctored to capture his grim reaction to being "assigned" more jobs, depending on the news of the day or the crisis du jour in the White House.

Why it matters: For his 55th birthday on May 28, White House staffers and President Trump gifted Rubio with a gold-framed collage of their 68 favorite "Rubio Realizing" memes.

• A photo of the gift went viral Wednesday when this Axios reporter posted it on X.

Zoom in: For the past 18 months, Rubio memes have featured him as everything from a Kiss band member to a samurai to a "Bachelorette" contestant in homage to his roles as secretary of state, national security adviser and chair of the U.S. bid for the World Expo in 2035.

• The memes are based on a photo from one of the most awkward moments in the Trump White House — on Feb. 28, 2025, when the president and Vice President Vance excoriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the war with Russia.
• As the two U.S. leaders savaged Zelensky, Rubio sat ramrod straight on an Oval Office couch without engaging.

The big picture: In today's social media-infused politics, internet virality is a priceless commodity, and all the memes have boosted Rubio's popularity with voters, according to Sarah Longwell, publisher of the Bulwark.

• "It's one of the first times a politician has been memed into more positive territory," Longwell, a critic of the administration who regularly holds voter focus groups, said recently on the "Press Box" podcast.
• "The idea that Marco Rubio is the adult in the room sort of comes from this idea that you give him every job," she said.
• "More and more, what you're seeing from voters is the idea that he seems he knows what he's doing. He seems like a serious person. He seems like a grownup."

Between the lines: Rubio has said he has no plans to run for president in 2028 and that he'll endorse Vance if the VP runs.

• Trump wants Vance to pick Rubio as a running mate, but the two haven't seriously discussed the presidential race, sources tell Axios.

At one point, Trump gave Rubio the job as national archivist and administrator of USAID. Both of those temporary appointments expired.

• In May, Rubio joked during a speech about wanting more jobs, including surgeon general.
• "I wanted it. You get a uniform," he said. "Library of Congress — that would be a good job."

Between the lines: Rubio said earlier this month during an interview on Fox News' "My View with Lara Trump" that when the original, meme-inspiring photo of him first came out, he "hated" it.

• "What happened is in that couch, if you don't have a pillow behind your back, you kind of sink," he said. "So I looked at the pictures, I was like, this is terrible."
• "... And then it turned into this other thing, and it was fine and it's funny," Rubio added. "I don't really follow it very closely. But people have shown me pictures out there."