For years, we've had the media try to force the idea that certain Democrats were "cool" down our throats. Barack Obama is probably the best example. Turns out, he's just a guy in mom jeans whose wife likes to go on podcasts and share enough marital gripes to make him sound overly henpecked. They tried with countless others. Eric Swalwell. We all know how that ended up. Turns out he's less "cool" and more "pervy predator." (Allegedly.) Gavin Newsom tries very hard himself to remind us he's cool, but every time he does, he comes across as racist, ridiculous, or just plain out of touch.
For some, however, it's effortless. I'm talking, of course, about our dear Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Most of y'all who read here regularly know I'm a fan and have been from the beginning of his career. I stuck with him, even when a lot of conservatives didn't. I was thrilled when Donald Trump chose him as Secretary of State — it was the first breaking news story I got to write when I joined the team here at PJ Media. That's who I learned so much of my Western Hemisphere foreign policy from over the years.
I say all this to admit that I'm biased.
And I don't know that Rubio is necessarily "cool." He can actually be kind of dorky. But I'm not even sure that matters. What does matter is that, while yes, he is a politician and proves that sometimes, he's also human and relatable in a way that those guys I mentioned above will never be. Now that he's arguably one of the most important men in the world, the MSM is catching on, and they don't like it one bit.
The biggest example of this is Rubio's passion for rap music and the fact that he often injects lyrics into his speeches and appearances. He's been doing this for a while, but the media has, apparently, just figured it out.
I'm going to go out on a limb and assume a lot of you in our audience do not care for this kind of music. Rubio has even joked himself in the past that it's not really what a lot of conservatives listen to. Personally, I don't mention it here often, but I'm a huge rap fan, and I think more conservative millennials like myself, who grew up on it in the 1990s, are too, and I think that adds to the secretary's appeal to my generation. I've said before that one reason I always liked him is because I felt he spoke to my generation (even though he's Gen X and a decade or two older than most of us).
But this is not necessarily about his taste in the music. This is just one of many examples. It's about how he remains authentic and refuses to back away from his love for it, even if it may not be popular with all of his base.
In his 2012 memoir An American Son, Rubio mentions that when he was in sixth grade, while his friends were listening to Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne, he was discovering Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash. He called hip-hop his "guilty pleasure," and claimed that when he was on the campaign trail, he'd sit with his earphones on and close his eyes and envision winning his initial campaign for the Senate. And apparently his young staff members were always surprised about his musical tastes. Here's something from the book The Rise of Marco Rubio:
Rubio liked to blast hip-hop on the stereo. 'He can spit!' one young staffer marveled to a friend, invoking the slang term for singing rap lyrics. A love of rap wasn't exactly what they expected from the up-and-coming voice of righteous conservatism. You know, I get in trouble when I talk about that a little bit, because maybe I shouldn't listen to that anymore, but the music is good, Rubio would later say. '[You've] just got to sometimes ignore what their politics may be and just enjoy the music.'
Fast forward back to 2026. On January 3, shortly after we captured Nicolás Maduro, Rubio said of Trump always doing what he says he's going to do, "If you don't know, now you know." It's a line from The Notorious B.I.G.'s — aka Biggie Smalls — 1994 song "Juicy."
The White House actually used it in a social media video last night, featuring Rubio aboard Air Force One, wearing the same Nike jogging suit Maduro wore the night we got him — a total troll move and yet another reason why Rubio is "cooler" than your average Democrat.
Full circle moment pic.twitter.com/6hkxyGNo8J
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2026
During a hearing earlier this year, he quoted Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" when talking about life in Venezuela under the Maduro regime. At a Cabinet meeting in March, he quoted a Public Enemy song, "Welcome to the Terrordome."
When he filled in for Karoline Leavitt during the White House press briefing last week, he worked in lyrics from Cypress Hill — saying the Iranian regime is "insane in the brain" — and Ice Cube, suggesting the regime should "check themselves before they wreck themselves."
For what it's worth, Rubio has also said he's a big EDM (electronic dance music) fan, and we've seen proof of that too. Most recently, him DJing a wedding in Florida a couple of weekends ago.
Marco Rubio got another job this weekend — Wedding DJ🤣
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 3, 2026
pic.twitter.com/yjhwZUHfqh
My point is that none of this is forced. It's not for political gain. He is just being who he is. And that's something very few Democrats are able to do these days.
You can tell it's a threat to the left because the MSM is starting to speak negatively about it. They see this cool dude whose star is rising at a rapid pace because of relatable things he says and does, who is a strong potential 2028 contender, and who is having fun while doing it.
They also see they've only got, well, Gavin Newsom in Atlanta telling a predominantly black audience that he's as dumb as they are, while his wife alienates most of the country with her absurd ideas that boys are bad and Southern conservatives are all hateful bigots.
The know they can't win elections with that, so they have to send out their barking dogs to try to make Rubio look bad.
On The Daily Show last week, they began mocking his use of rap lyrics, saying they're inappropriate when talking about war. They also declared that rap music is no longer cool.
And just look how sad Jake Tapper appears to be over the whole "rap lyric" situation.
The pain in Jake Tapper‘s face is priceless-he really feels the need to let you know that Marco Rubio used hip-hop references 🤣 pic.twitter.com/gOHjK6g1Hj
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) May 7, 2026
The Atlantic also recently published an article called "Is Marco Rubio the Happiest Cabinet Member?" On the surface, it sounds like a feel-good puff piece, like something, I don't know, maybe yours truly would write, but the subheading gives it away: "While his colleagues deal with war and controversy, he’s laughing and talking in rap lyrics."
Laughing? Talking in rap lyrics? It's criminal! Let's just lock him up right now.
I didn't read the entire article, but it goes on to list all the supposedly bad things going on in the country, the world, and the Trump administration and declares "In a more normal time, he would seem like just another glad-handing politician. But consider the moment."
If that's the worst these people can come up — he laughs, he uses lyrics to make points, he's enjoying his life — I'd say Rubio is doing much better than most of the current politicians in the U.S.
And I, for one, am here for it. As a matter of fact, I'd like to see more.
If @SecRubio @marcorubio doesn’t hit us with "Mo Money, Mo Problems" at the State Department budget hearing this year… what’s even the point? 😂 https://t.co/MVoepsns2x
— SarahDownSouth (@SarahDownSouth) May 5, 2026
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