Republican insiders are already writing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s political obituary after Tuesday’s midterm drubbing, and a controversial Donald Trump loyalist is reportedly maneuvering to replace him.
As Democrats swept to control of the House and Senate, Trump officials began pointing fingers at the Iran War, which has cost taxpayers at least $47 billion and pushed gas prices to $4.15 a gallon, and one senior official blamed Rubio’s State Department, according to the Daily Mail, and a top GOP donor agreed.
“Rubio is over,” the donor said. “Though that’s maybe also true for all Republicans who touched Trump’s foreign policy.”
Rubio was spotted at the White House election night watch party early in the evening, but later “could not be found anywhere,” the outlet reported.
Now, two sources told the Daily Mail that Sergio Gor, the president’s former personnel chief and current ambassador to India, is positioning for a move into the State Department. One predicted Gor would be nominated as secretary of state if Rubio resigns to run for president in 2028.
Another source said Gor had sat in on every one of Rubio’s meetings at last week’s G20 gathering of foreign ministers in Atlanta.
Gor would arrive with plenty of baggage.
The Soviet-born aide spent months dodging questions about his origins before records surfaced last year showing he was born Sergio Gorokhovsky in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, then part of the USSR. Gor had long been described as an immigrant from Malta, where he spent part of his childhood.
The New York Post reported in June 2025 that Gor had never completed the SF-86 paperwork required for a permanent security clearance, even as he oversaw the hiring of thousands of administration staffers. The White House dismissed that report as “baseless gossip.”
His tenure as personnel director saw a record number of failed nominations, and Trump himself seemed to acknowledge as much at Gor’s swearing-in as ambassador.
“We have had a great team, a couple of mistakes there Sergio, but we won’t mention that,” Trump said. “Some people, when they don’t like Sergio, they don’t like him.”
Since taking up his post in India and as special envoy to Central Asia, Gor has drawn criticism from career diplomats. Politico reported this summer that he met privately with Turkmenistan’s de facto ruler weeks before the strongman’s secretive visit to South Florida.
“He’s snooping for business,” said Richard Hoagland, a former U.S. diplomat in the region.
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