The social media star of the Trump administration is naturally President Donald Trump. What’s surprising is the one who comes in second place — Secretary of State Marco Rubio. You can hardly visit an online platform without seeing our new secretary of memes, even more often than the memeworthy vice president. It will probably happen even more now that he is fresh off a major speech to the Munich Security Conference that Politico called part of "America’s charm offensive." 

Rubio has become such a social media celebrity that Trump bought into the fun. One Truth Social poster wrote that "Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba." Trump responded, "Sounds good to me!" That set in motion a regional freakout as Cuba’s communist government gets increasingly worried it will go the way of Venezuela.

But the No. 1 way Rubio is making his mark is with what is known as the "Marco Rubio realizing" meme, where a picture of Rubio sitting on a couch is doctored with him wearing every costume imaginable as he takes on even more roles for the administration. His list of potential jobs is seemingly endless — president of Venezuela, the ayatollah of Iran, even the new food pyramid. Following Trump’s post about the Obamas, another poster had Rubio realizing he was taking over the president’s social media accounts.

MARCO RUBIO EMERGES AS KEY TRUMP POWER PLAYER AFTER VENEZUELA OPERATION

"Marco Rubio after being told he has to run Greenland now," has him decked out in a furry, hooded parka and mittens, like the clothes worn in "The Empire Strikes Back" from "Star Wars." Another has him dressed like Frodo Baggins from "The Lord of the Rings" with the caption, "Rubio realizing that only he can destroy the ring of power."

Rubio memes were flying fast and furious across the internet in time for the Super Bowl. Rubio dressed as a U.S. Olympic skier in response to the whines from the ski team. "Marco Rubio realizes he needs to replace the entire US Olympic ski team because they’ve been seditious overseas." Another had him dressed as a one-man band to perform the half-time show to replace lefty weirdo Bad Bunny.

Rubio is clearly living his best life and enjoying the meme-ish notoriety. At one point, he responded to one of the sports memes like this: "I do not normally respond to online rumors but feel the need to do so at this moment I will not be a candidate for the currently vacant HC and GM positions with the Miami Dolphins."

That’s downright Trumpian in his sense of humor.

DAVID MARCUS: WHAT JD VANCE TOLD ME ABOUT 2028, RUBIO AND THE FUTURE OF MAGA

As with many things on social media, there’s a method to the madness. At one point, Rubio held four different jobs under the Trump administration — secretary of state, national security advisor, head of the National Archives and interim head of USAID. To underscore that point, the Miami Herald ran this headline in August: "Marco Rubio hands off one of his four jobs in Trump administration."

In early January, new "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil did a piece about the rise of Rubionic memes. "Only in America: the many lives and many jobs of Marco Rubio." As Dokoupil explained, "now AI memes have added to that portfolio, casting Secretary Rubio as the new governor of Minnesota, the new Shah of Iran, the prime minister of Greenland and the new manager of Manchester United." The chyron called it "Marco Rubio’s ‘Moment.’"

Newsweek declared, "Marco Rubio Memes Conquer the internet." Counting him virtually in charge of at least three enemies of the U.S. — Iran, Venezuela and Cuba — throw in Greenland, Minnesota and maybe they are right.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

But Rubio might be conquering far more than many realize. He might also have won over MAGA conservatives to his side. It wasn’t long after Trump’s re-election in November 2024 that the press was reporting on opposition among the base voters. Politico declared, "Rubio news triggers MAGA backlash." And the Hill went a similar route, claiming, "Trump’s Rubio pick divides Republicans."

That no longer seems the case. Rubio has earned his many jobs because he’s been a reliable and successful proponent for America First. Voters might have been skeptical, but many now share the memes both for fun and because they’d be comfortable with the secretary of state taking on almost any job.

Dokoupil said, "These memes might not add up to much." That could prove incorrect. The 2028 election still seems decades away, but Rubio’s popularity might signal conservative voter support for him to at least have one more job — a spot on the ticket, perhaps with his meme popularity partner Vice President JD Vance.

No matter what, Rubio won’t ever sit on a couch without someone declaring it a seat of power.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAN GAINOR

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader, two-time Democratic presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, died Tuesday morning at the age of 84, his family said in a statement.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of civil rights leader and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Honorable Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. He died peacefully on Tuesday morning, surrounded by his family," the statement said.

"Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world," the Jackson family said. "We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions."

A cause of death was not mentioned, but Jackson had suffered from multiple health problems in recent years. In 2017, Jackson revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He was also treated for progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare degenerative neurological disorder. Despite health setbacks that weakened his voice and mobility, he continued advocating for civil rights and was arrested twice in 2021 while protesting the Senate filibuster rule.

REV. JESSE JACKSON HOSPITALIZED AMID HEALTH BATTLE WITH NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE

Born Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jackson grew up in a segregated community. As a teenager, he excelled academically and earned a football scholarship to the University of Illinois before transferring to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College, where he graduated in 1964.

He became involved in civil rights activism as a teenager and was arrested at 18 for participating in a sit-in at a segregated public library. The protest marked the beginning of his rise in the student-led movement challenging segregation across the South.

After graduation, Jackson left his studies at Chicago Theological Seminary to join the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, and later became a key figure in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. With King’s support, he led Operation Breadbasket in Chicago, a campaign aimed at expanding economic opportunities for Black Americans.

TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG, JFK'S GRANDDAUGHTER, DIES AT 35 AFTER YEAR-AND-A-HALF LEUKEMIA BATTLE

Jackson was in Memphis in 1968 when King was assassinated. In the years that followed, Jackson founded what became the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, an organization focused on civil rights, voter registration and economic empowerment. Over decades of activism, he received dozens of honorary degrees and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 by President Bill Clinton.

Jackson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. In 1984, he won 18% of the primary vote. His campaign faced controversy over an antisemitic remark he made about New York’s Jewish community.

In 1988, Jackson won nearly 7 million votes — about 29% of the total — and finished first or second in multiple Super Tuesday contests. Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis ultimately secured the nomination.

Though he never held elected office, Jackson remained an influential political figure, advocating for expanded voter registration, lobbying for Washington, D.C., statehood, and at times serving as a diplomatic envoy, including efforts to secure the release of Americans held overseas.

In 2001, Jackson publicly acknowledged that he had fathered a daughter, Ashley, with a woman affiliated with his advocacy organization. He later apologized.

Jackson is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Jacqueline; their children — Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef and Jacqueline — daughter Ashley Jackson; and grandchildren.

Public observances will be held in Chicago with final funeral arrangements yet to be announced. 

The partial government shutdown stretched into another week after negotiators failed to reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the weekend.

Congress is on a weeklong recess and is not scheduled to return to Washington, D.C., until next week, leaving the shutdown's end in limbo as both parties remain far apart on key provisions.

Senate Democrats are demanding a series of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a position they have maintained since the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good during ICE operations in Minnesota.

FETTERMAN BUCKS DEMOCRATS, SAYS PARTY PUT POLITICS OVER COUNTRY IN DHS SHUTDOWN STANDOFF

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus are standing by a list of 10 proposed reforms, including requiring ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants and limiting the use of face coverings — proposals Republicans have described as red lines.

"Americans are tired of masked agents conducting warrantless operations in their communities — secret police," Schumer said. "They're tired of chaos, secrecy and zero accountability. That is not what law and order looks like, and Republicans simply cannot pretend that this outrage does not exist."

However, ICE received additional funding under previously passed legislation, and core enforcement operations are expected to continue. Other DHS agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Coast Guard, remain affected by the shutdown.

GOVERNMENT TO SHUT DOWN AT MIDNIGHT AFTER DEMS, WHITE HOUSE FAIL TO STRIKE DHS DEAL

The White House has led negotiations for Senate Republicans and offered Senate Democrats a proposal that they have rejected. Details of that proposal have not been made public.

"This is a Democrat-driven shutdown caused by their intransigence and desire to use government funding for services all Americans rely on as a hostage in order to achieve an unrelated political goal," a senior White House official said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said lawmakers would receive 24 hours’ notice to return if a deal is reached.

DHS SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS WITHOUT PAY, WHAT HAPPENS TO AIRPORTS AND DISASTER RESPONSE

"I think all those reasonable efforts and requests have been overshadowed by the fact that the Democrats don't seem to want to play ball," Thune said.

On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told lawmakers they would receive 48 hours’ notice to return if the Senate passes a bill. The House is also in recess until Feb. 23.

Johnson and other Republicans have expressed support for the original DHS funding bill crafted by House and Senate appropriators, but the speaker said he does not want further delays in DHS funding to be attributed to the House.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said Democrats will not accept a funding bill that does not include significant reforms to ICE.

The American Culture Quiz is a weekly test of our unique national traits, trends, history and people — including current events and the sights and sounds of the United States.

This week's quiz highlights retro recipes, Olympic origins — and a lot more. 

Can you get all 8 questions right?

Give it a try and see how you do!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES

To try your hand at more quizzes from Fox News Digital, click here. 

Also, to take our latest News Quiz — published every Friday — click here.

Police departments nationwide offered a unique suggestion for a Valentine’s Day gift and urged people to turn in exes with outstanding warrants.

The Uxbridge Police Department in Massachusetts posted a tongue-in-cheek poem urging residents to get revenge by reporting exes with active warrants.

"Roses are red, violets are blue," the post begins. "If your ex has a warrant, we’ve got something special for you."

"This Valentine’s Day, give the gift that really delivers — a ride with flashing lights and guaranteed closure," the post continues.

FLORIDA AG INVITES PEOPLE TO ALERT HIS OFFICE IF THEIR EX IS IN US ILLEGALLY: 'WE’D BE HAPPY TO ASSIST'

The department humorously ended its post by reminding residents, "Love fades. Warrants don’t."

A heart-covered flyer included in the post provided additional instructions for residents, while cracking jokes about how the department can’t take over for Cupid, but can make the holiday memorable.

"Have an ex with a warrant?"

FLORIDA SHERIFF'S OFFICE BUYS ICE CREAM TRUCK WITH MONEY SEIZED FROM DRUG DEALERS, GIVES FREE TREATS TO KIDS

"We can’t fix your love life, but we can help with outstanding warrants," the flyer states. "Send us their whereabouts — We’ll make sure they get a Valentine’s Day visit."

A jail cell is included in the flyer, along with the department's main phone number.

Earlier this week, the Bradenton Police Department in Florida shared a similar post that was liked nearly 230,000 times.

"Help us keep our community safe while mending your broken heart," the department wrote.

In California, the Santa Maria Police Department posted a video of an officer opening a heart-shaped box, only to reveal a pair of handcuffs.

"Still thinking about that ex with a felony warrant? Give us a call," the video caption reads.

Too often, watching the ladies on ABC’s "The View" is like finding the five more partisan Democrat accounts on Instagram or X. You’ll get every Democratic National Committee talking point, with an emphasis on how the left is amazing and the right will end democracy as we know it.

This week, "The View" crew repeatedly gushed over the allegedly marvelous Super Bowl halftime show of Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, because he hates President Donald Trump and ICE. The fact that it was almost entirely in Spanish (except for a Lady Gaga interlude) was a point of pride and proved that Americans are backward people. "This country seems to be one of the only countries in the world that is so proud of being monolingual and not being able to communicate in more than one language," Co-host Sunny Hostin complained. "And, the fact of the matter is, in about 20 years, multi-ethnic people will be the majority in this country! So, if you don't understand Spanish, maybe start taking a little Duolingo course!"

Co-host Joy Behar added disdain to the Bad Bunny critics: "These are not exactly the same people that go to the opera where they speak Italian and French. But let’s not go there. The country, in my opinion, has a misplaced set of values."

Try to imagine Behar feeling morally superior as she goes to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to see the new woke version of Bizet’s "Carmen," where the setting is MAGA – "an industrial American town" in flyover country – and the villains are ICE agents. Then it doesn’t matter if it’s in French.

JIMMY KIMMEL CALLS OUT LIBERALS FOR NOT ACTUALLY BEING FANS OF BAD BUNNY DESPITE HAILING HALFTIME SHOW

The only hope in the coming weeks is that Alyssa Farah Griffin’s maternity leave results in a little more conservative dissent on this remarkably one-sided program. Already, fans of the show are up in arms that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is going to pop in, as if she was unacceptably ultraconservative in her decade on the show. It’s easier for the liberals to feel smart when nobody calls them out for sounding stupid.

On Thursday, after Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before Congress, Hostin accused Bondi of ruining the Department of Justice, which had supposedly never been a partisan agency under Democrat Presidents Bill Clinton or Barack Obama or Joe Biden. "The Justice Department is in shambles. So, the people of the United States have that person who is deeply unqualified, who is deeply unserious as their protection, as the person that is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America! I am so disgusted! I am so saddened by what is the destruction of one of the biggest and strongest institutions in our country!" Nobody pushes back on these speeches.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

Then Behar typically came unglued: "By the way, you know, just a little history, during the Watergate scandal President Nixon did not go to jail but John Mitchell did. John Mitchell was his attorney general. So, at the end of the day, Miss Bondi, you're looking at some prison time." For what? Who needs to look it up? Emotion in search of an applause line is everything.

Minutes later, she played historian again, in the fight between Trump and Democrats in Congress like Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who nudged military personnel to defy Trump: "Again, I hate to bring up history again but there's something called the Nuremberg defense, which basically states that acting under orders, illegal orders does not relieve a person of responsibility under international law." They always have to compare Trump to Hitler and his Nazi underlings.

She continued: "These people were saying, you do not have to obey an illegal order. And the illegal orders are the following," she said, reading from a paper. "Telling generals to send members into major cities to use them as training grounds. Suggesting that troops shoot protesters in the legs. Ordering unlawful military strikes on boats in international waters…. the Nuremberg Trial proved that going against an illegal order is legit."

Nobody should want these ladies as their experts on history or politics or culture. But they are reliable robots on the social-media memes and themes that the Democrats use in their efforts to win every news cycle. It’s shocking that this show is under the ABC News umbrella, because there’s nothing in this show that sounds like journalism. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM TIM GRAHAM

The federal government has entered its third partial shutdown of the last half-year after Congress failed to reach an agreement on all 12 of its annual spending bills.

Unlike past shutdowns, however, this one just affects the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It comes after Democrats walked away from a bipartisan deal to fund the department amid uproar over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

And while some 97% of the federal government has been funded at this point, a DHS shutdown will still have effects on everyday Americans — effects that will become more apparent the longer the standoff continues.

DHS SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS WITHOUT PAY, WHAT HAPPENS TO AIRPORTS AND DISASTER RESPONSE

Disruptions to the TSA, whose agents are responsible for security checks at nearly 440 airports across the country, could perhaps be the most impactful part of the partial shutdown to Americans’ everyday lives.

Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that around 95% of TSA employees — roughly 61,000 people — are deemed essential and will be forced to work without pay in the event of a shutdown.

"We heard reports of officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet," she said of the last shutdown.

But it would take some time before TSA funding could translate to delays. TSA agents, like other essential federal workers, received back pay once the shutdown was over. Those who did not miss shifts also got a $10,000 bonus for added relief.

FETTERMAN BUCKS DEMOCRATS, SAYS PARTY PUT POLITICS OVER COUNTRY IN DHS SHUTDOWN STANDOFF

TSA paychecks due to be issued on March 3 could see agents getting reduced pay depending on the length of the shutdown. Agents would not be at risk of missing a full paycheck until March 17.

If that happens, however, Americans could see delays or even cancellations at the country’s busiest airports as TSA agents are forced to call out of work and get second jobs to make ends meet.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is one of the largest and most critical recipients of federal funding under DHS.

Associate Administrator of the Office of Response and Recovery Gregg Phillips told lawmakers on Wednesday that FEMA has enough funds to continue disaster response through a shutdown in the immediate future, but that its budget would be strained in the event of an unforeseen "catastrophic disaster."

That means Americans hit by an unexpected natural disaster during the shutdown could see delayed federal reimbursement for their homes and small businesses.

Others who have already lived through a natural disaster in the last year but still have not received their checks — FEMA is currently working through a backlog worth billions of dollars — could see that relief delayed even further during the shutdown.

"In the 45 days I've been here … we have spent $3 billion in 45 days on 5,000 projects," Phillips said. "We're going as fast as we can. We're committed to reducing the backlog. I can't go any faster than we actually are. And if this lapses, that's going to stop."

American business owners who rely on certain types of worker visas could see processing times extended during a DHS shutdown.

That's because United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) programs are run under DHS and are responsible for processing most immigration applications as well as temporary visas.

The majority of those programs are funded by fees and are largely untouched. However, areas like e-Verify, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Center Program, Conrad 30 J-1 doctors, and non-minister religious workers all rely on funding appropriated by Congress, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

USCIS could allow employers to use alternate processes if e-Verify is disrupted during a shutdown, but it's not clear how much time it would add to business owners' day-to-day responsibilities to learn a new route for that paperwork.